Water is held in an aerating pond at the Sewerage & Water Board plant in New Orleans. Credit: Greg LaRose/Louisiana Illuminator
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On the first Tuesday in August, the Sewerage & Water Board’s Carrollton Water Plant lost power from its Entergy electric line, shutting off the pumps that provide drinking water to the city. While attempting to turn the pumps back on, a S&WB employee was seriously injured. The need to render aid to the fallen worker and wait for an ambulance to arrive caused an hour-long delay in re-starting the pumps.
The S&WB has about 40 minutes to restore pumping capacity before water pressure drops below the level necessary to guard against bacterial growth. Any longer, and the agency will issue a boil water order and begin testing the water supply for safety. The most recent order lasted two days, creating headaches for businesses trying to stay open, and residents trying to complete basic water tasks at home.
While residents in this hurricane-prone city are no strangers to power outages and boil water advisories, these recent events were different because it was not severe weather that started the cascade of system failures. It was a balloon. A mylar helium balloon floated onto a power line and caused a short-circuit.
This caused many residents to ask: If our power and water systems can be knocked offline by a mylar balloon, how will they withstand a hurricane?
Lack of confidence in local public utilities is not new. Last year, a survey of New Orleans residents commissioned by Verite News found that only 18 percent of respondents approved of the performance of the Sewerage & Water Board, while 71 percent disapproved. In a JD Power Customer Satisfaction Survey also taken last year, Entergy New Orleans came in dead last in customer satisfaction when compared with all electric companies in the Southern Region of the country.
While residents and the leadership of Entergy and the S&WB all agree that neither utility has enough redundancy built into their systems, they disagree on the cause. Residents tend to believe that the causes are human mismanagement or incompetence, while the utilities will argue they don’t receive enough money to improve their systems.
S&WB officials point out that funding they requested to build their own independent generator complex has not been approved by the state legislature. In the meantime, they are dependent on Entergy to power their main station. Entergy will point out that they have produced a plan to harden the electrical grid, making it more resilient to hurricanes and other disasters. However, that plan would require an increase in bills paid by customers.
In the short term, any new funding will need to come from external sources such as state or federal appropriations. It is highly unlikely that local voters will approve any new taxes or fees. In the Verite News Survey, 49 percent of respondents said they were unsatisfied with the amount of money they paid monthly for electricity and water. Since a large segment of the public does not believe that the utilities are properly managing the fees residents pay now, it will be very difficult to get approval to collect more.
In the long term, the utilities will need to do a much better job of communicating their specific technical challenges to the public. They need to regain public trust. Right now, the public looks at the utility companies with a great deal of mistrust.
The City Council, as the regulator of Entergy and the S&WB, has a necessary role to play. In response to the latest power and water issue, many residents have suggested that the sale and use of mylar balloons should be banned in the city by the council. This might be a good first step, but what about the next hurricane? The mylar balloon triggering this latest event only exposed pre-existing system weaknesses.
The council is about to open an investigation into the latest outage. Since this event involved both Entergy and S&WB, this would be a great opportunity to expand the discussion to include questions about how these utilities can regain public trust, which will be necessary if they are to receive funding increases in the future.
Next year will bring a municipal election with an open seat for mayor. The entire City Council is also on the ballot. Now is the time for voters to demand that all candidates for New Orleans public offices produce detailed plans of how they would fix the utilities and provide clean water and reliable electricity to the citizens of New Orleans.
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Offline: Why can’t New Orleans residents receive more reliable power and water?
by Robert Collins, Verite News New Orleans August 13, 2024
Robert Collins is a professor of Urban Studies and Public Policy at Dillard, where he holds the Conrad N. Hilton Endowed Professorship. He previously held positions as dean of the College of Arts and Sciences...
More by Robert Collins
Offline: Why can’t New Orleans residents receive more reliable power and water?
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On the first Tuesday in August, the Sewerage & Water Board’s Carrollton Water Plant lost power from its Entergy electric line, shutting off the pumps that provide drinking water to the city. While attempting to turn the pumps back on, a S&WB employee was seriously injured. The need to render aid to the fallen worker and wait for an ambulance to arrive caused an hour-long delay in re-starting the pumps.
The S&WB has about 40 minutes to restore pumping capacity before water pressure drops below the level necessary to guard against bacterial growth. Any longer, and the agency will issue a boil water order and begin testing the water supply for safety. The most recent order lasted two days, creating headaches for businesses trying to stay open, and residents trying to complete basic water tasks at home.
While residents in this hurricane-prone city are no strangers to power outages and boil water advisories, these recent events were different because it was not severe weather that started the cascade of system failures. It was a balloon. A mylar helium balloon floated onto a power line and caused a short-circuit.
This caused many residents to ask: If our power and water systems can be knocked offline by a mylar balloon, how will they withstand a hurricane?
Lack of confidence in local public utilities is not new. Last year, a survey of New Orleans residents commissioned by Verite News found that only 18 percent of respondents approved of the performance of the Sewerage & Water Board, while 71 percent disapproved. In a JD Power Customer Satisfaction Survey also taken last year, Entergy New Orleans came in dead last in customer satisfaction when compared with all electric companies in the Southern Region of the country.
While residents and the leadership of Entergy and the S&WB all agree that neither utility has enough redundancy built into their systems, they disagree on the cause. Residents tend to believe that the causes are human mismanagement or incompetence, while the utilities will argue they don’t receive enough money to improve their systems.
S&WB officials point out that funding they requested to build their own independent generator complex has not been approved by the state legislature. In the meantime, they are dependent on Entergy to power their main station. Entergy will point out that they have produced a plan to harden the electrical grid, making it more resilient to hurricanes and other disasters. However, that plan would require an increase in bills paid by customers.
In the short term, any new funding will need to come from external sources such as state or federal appropriations. It is highly unlikely that local voters will approve any new taxes or fees. In the Verite News Survey, 49 percent of respondents said they were unsatisfied with the amount of money they paid monthly for electricity and water. Since a large segment of the public does not believe that the utilities are properly managing the fees residents pay now, it will be very difficult to get approval to collect more.
In the long term, the utilities will need to do a much better job of communicating their specific technical challenges to the public. They need to regain public trust. Right now, the public looks at the utility companies with a great deal of mistrust.
The City Council, as the regulator of Entergy and the S&WB, has a necessary role to play. In response to the latest power and water issue, many residents have suggested that the sale and use of mylar balloons should be banned in the city by the council. This might be a good first step, but what about the next hurricane? The mylar balloon triggering this latest event only exposed pre-existing system weaknesses.
The council is about to open an investigation into the latest outage. Since this event involved both Entergy and S&WB, this would be a great opportunity to expand the discussion to include questions about how these utilities can regain public trust, which will be necessary if they are to receive funding increases in the future.
Next year will bring a municipal election with an open seat for mayor. The entire City Council is also on the ballot. Now is the time for voters to demand that all candidates for New Orleans public offices produce detailed plans of how they would fix the utilities and provide clean water and reliable electricity to the citizens of New Orleans.
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Robert Collins
Robert Collins is a professor of Urban Studies and Public Policy at Dillard, where he holds the Conrad N. Hilton Endowed Professorship. He previously held positions as dean of the College of Arts and Sciences... More by Robert Collins