Sewerage and Water Board hosts final "Water Talks" community meeting
Sewerage and Water Board hosts final “Water Talks” community meeting
Sewerage and Water Board leaders address outages, advisories, construction
Pews at the Calvary Tabernacle Church were nearly empty Tuesday night with the exception of about five District B residents.
New Orleans Sewerage and Water Board leaders still proceeded with their “Water Talks” community conversation anyway. It’s the last of the series.
“I’ve seen it when we’ve had two people. I’ve seen when we’ve had maybe about thirty. It doesn’t matter to me if it’s one or thirty or a hundred. That means that is a customer who is concerned about the Sewerage and Water Board, had a question, wanted to learn more and so we have to bring the same enthusiasm and the same information to them,” said Executive Director Randy Hayman.
According to Hayman, of the 1600 miles of water main in the city, 34% of it is over 100 years old. He says regardless of who sits on the SWBNO board, a system that old is bound to have problems.
Hayman says his team has been exploring ways to modernize the system and that much of the work that goes into that is behind the scenes. He says ultimately it’s going to boil down to securing more funding for the utility.
WDSU asked, realistically, when that could happen.
“We did request earmarks so we may hear something at the end of the session, the congressional session, so we may hear something near the end of September,” said Hayman.
Hayman also provided an update on the recent boil water advisory issued for the West Bank. Though the majority of the West Bank is now in the clear, the Memorial Park Neighborhood remains under a boil water advisory. According to the Sewerage and Water Board, water quality samples were still testing for coliform Tuesday. Additional samples are being collected and will be evaluated Wednesday.