Residents in New Orleans' east bank and Algiers Point are being urged to boil their tap water after a power outage at a treatment plant caused water pressures to fall.
“Last night at approximately 7:00 pm, a Mylar ballon impacted a power line connected to three major circuits, creating a momentary disruption to service. One of these circuits served the SWBNO Carrollton Water Treatment Plant, which experienced momentary low voltage (a “flicker”)," an Entergy New Orleans representative said in a statement to WWNO. “As a result, pumps at the plant tripped offline. SWBNO crews were able to switch over to backup power and get additional pumps online, but not before the water pressure fell below the threshold for issuing a precautionary boil water advisory.”
The Sewerage & Water Board of New Orleans (SWBNO) said one of its workers suffered a serious injury when they tried to get the pumps back online.
The worker was inside the SWBNO's Claiborne station when the power went out. He "started the protocol of initiating what needs to be done in terms of returning the pumping back on,” and "suffered a "very, very serious injury, which he then became unable to continue to perform his role,” SWBNO Director Ghassan Korban explained.
Korban said a colleague discovered the worker on the ground. Employees called 911, and the man was taken to the hospital.
What areas are affected?
The SWBNO issued a precautionary boil water notice Tuesday evening for the entire east bank of New Orleans and Algiers Point.
The boundaries for the West Bank are:
- Donner St. to Idaho St.
- Idaho St. from Donner St. to General de Gaulle Dr.
- Wall Blvd. from General de Gaulle Dr. to Pace Blvd.
- Pace Blvd. from Wall Blvd. to General Meyer Ave.
- Merrill St. from General Meyer Ave. to Patterson Dr.
"Water pressures in these areas fell below 20 pounds per square inch (psi) due to power failure at the Carrollton Water Treatment plant. The Algiers Water Treatment plant was also briefly affected by this power outage. The cause of the power failure is still being investigated," the SWBNO added.
Water service was restored, but both areas remain under a precautionary boil water advisory while workers test the water system. The tests typically take around 24 hours to complete.
"Due to the volume of samples, this precautionary boil water advisory will likely last until Thursday afternoon. We will keep the public updated on when the samples have arrived back at our lab and testing has begun," the SWBNO said on X, formerly Twitter.
What to do during a boil water notice
During a boil water advisory, residents should use bottled, boiled, or treated water for cooking, drinking, mixing formula, making ice and personal hygiene. If bottled water is not available, you should boil water for at least a minute to kill bacteria and other organisms in the water.
Healthy adults can bathe or shower with tap water, but be careful not to swallow it.
How are schools and businesses impacted?
The advisory forced Leah Chase, a new school in the Carrolton neighborhood, to make some adjustments for its second day of classes. The school covered all of its water fountains and passed out water bottles to students. It will not serve fresh fruit to students and all cooking is being done with boiled water, the school said.
Restaurants and other businesses remain open, but they've adjusted their menus and services. A coffee shop in the Uptown neighborhood isn’t offering free tap water to customers like they usually do.
Emily Travis, a barista said she had to throw out 10 to 15 bags of ice and buy new ones.
“Of course prices are higher for ice because everyone’s trying to keep cool, especially with the heat wave,” she said. “It’s frustrating.”
But the situation actually helped a business near the Lower Garden District.
“The bright side of nobody using water today is that we actually have good water pressure to brew with for a change,” Courtyard Brewery wrote on X.
What’s being done to prevent more outages from happening?
Korban said the boil notice is the first of its kind in at least five years.
The agency typically intervenes when large power outages occur, he said, but the injured employee interfered with their response.
“Had it not been for that incident, we would've been able to restore pumping,” he said.
Nonetheless, the balloon strike highlights major vulnerabilities in New Orleans' water system, Korban noted.
“While this is unfortunate, we are in the midst of building and modernizing a power complex that will hopefully eliminate what happened in terms of relying on the energy grid and the vulnerability that is associated with it,” Korban said.
The new power complex, expected to come online in 2025, is designed to power the city’s drainage systems in the event of major storms.
“What lacks today in terms of funding is the connection of that substation to potable drinking pumps,” he said. “That funding is not in place and obviously this hopefully will elevate the attention and we're able to identify sources of funding in order to finish the project as designed.”
