New Orleans and other Louisiana cities are facing threats to drinking water supplies as a saltwater wedge creeps up the drought-stricken Mississippi River.
A mass of salt water moving up the drought-stricken river has slowed, giving New Orleans more time to prepare. In tiny Plaquemines Parish, there has been no such respite.
“It’s kind of hard to get up and leave — but it’s getting harder and harder to live here in the long run,” he said. “When you can’t get basic amenities like clean water, it’s bad.”The race to protect that basic amenity brought Cynthia Lee Sheng to the west bank of the Mississippi River on a hot afternoon this week.
Smaller water treatment plants in the area could rely on reverse osmosis systems to remove salt or also mix in fresh water from Army Corps barges to lower salinity — options not feasible for the larger facilities in Jefferson and Orleans. “It just doesn’t happen overnight,” Hinkley said, noting that units at a small water plant in Boothville alone will cost roughly a half-million dollars a month. “It’s a lot of prep work before you process that first gallon of water.”Until that happens, assurances ring hollow for people such as Monique Plaisance, who lives in Buras with her husband and two children, and is pregnant. In particular, she worries about a rash on her 6-year-old daughter’s neck that flared up in recent months.
On that much, Hinkley agrees. After the immediate crisis fades, he said, he will push to fund a permanent reverse osmosis system in the lower part of the parish. Because theUp and down the river, there is a sense that the threat of recent weeks will resurface sooner than later.
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Reprieve for New Orleans as salt water creeping up the Mississippi River slows its march inlandSalt water inching up the Mississippi River is progressing more slowly than once projected — buying time for water systems in metropolitan New Orleans that draw drinking water from the river. Officials said at a news conference in New Orleans on Thursday that an underwater sill downriver has helped impede the flow of heavy salt water crawling upriver. River flow forecasts are also better than expected. It means intakes in New Orleans and neighboring Jefferson Parish won't see the arrival until late November, instead of later this month. For smaller communities farther downriver, efforts continue to barge large amounts of fresh water to water system intakes.
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Reprieve for New Orleans as salt water creeping up the Mississippi River slows its march inlandSalt water inching up the Mississippi River is progressing more slowly than once projected — buying time for water systems in metropolitan New Orleans that draw drinking water from the river
Read more »
Reprieve for New Orleans as salt water creeping up the Mississippi River slows its march inlandSalt water inching up the Mississippi River is progressing more slowly than once projected — buying time for water systems in metropolitan New Orleans that draw drinking water from the river
Read more »
Reprieve for New Orleans as salt water creeping up the Mississippi River slows its march inlandSalt water inching up the Mississippi River is progressing more slowly than once projected — buying time for water systems in metropolitan New Orleans that draw drinking water from the river.
Read more »
Reprieve for New Orleans as salt water creeping up the Mississippi River slows its march inlandSalt water inching up the Mississippi River is progressing more slowly than once projected — buying time for water systems in metropolitan New Orleans that draw drinking water from the river.
Read more »
Reprieve for New Orleans as salt water creeping up the Mississippi River slows its march inlandSalt water inching up the Mississippi River is progressing more slowly than once projected — buying time for water systems in metropolitan New Orleans that draw drinking water from the river.
Read more »