Update on Boil Water Advisory for Lower 9th Ward and Limited Area in New Orleans East
For Immediate Release: Friday, October 4, 2019 1:39 PM
NEW ORLEANS- The precautionary boil water advisory for the Lower 9th Ward and limited area of New Orleans East is still in effect. Sewerage & Water Board of New Orleans (SWBNO), in consultation with the Louisiana Department of Health (LDH), is testing water quality samples, which may take up to 24 hours to achieve results.
SWBNO will notify residents and businesses when the boil water advisory is canceled. Customers in other areas of the city are not affected and do not need to boil their water.
Planned, complex repairs to several sites in the water distribution system were underway Thursday evening. SWBNO crews were closing valves to limit water to those areas, so the work could commence, when SWBNO pressure gauges detected widespread water pressure drops throughout New Orleans. In response, our crews reopened several closed valves and the water towers in Carrollton released water in an attempt to slow the pressure drop.
Nonetheless, pressure had dropped low enough in the Lower 9th Ward and the area in New Orleans East bounded by Bullard Avenue, Interstate 10, Paris Road and Lake Pontchartrain to trigger a precautionary boil water advisory. SWBNO continues to investigate the incident.
SWBNO, in partnership with the Louisiana Department of Health, issues boil water advisories out of an abundance of caution for areas where water pressure drops below 20 pounds per square inch (psi). The concern is that a pressure drop inside a water pipe could allow bacteriological contaminants to enter.
Healthy adults should take the following precautions:
Washing hands: Use soap and tap water, dry hands, then apply hand sanitizer; the safest option is to wash with bottled or boiled water.
Showering or bathing: Be careful not to swallow any water. Infants, young children and disabled persons should be supervised to ensure water is not ingested. Residents with open wounds, chronic illness or weakened immune systems should use boiled or bottled water to bathe until the advisory is lifted.
SWBNO will notify residents when the boil water advisory is canceled. If you have any questions, please call 52-WATER (504.529.2837).
INSTRUCTIONS FOR BOILING WATER
Bring water to a rolling boil in a clean container for a full minute. If the water has a flat taste afterward, shake it in a bottle or pour it from one container to another.
Please review general and LDH recommendations for managing a boil water advisory at http://ready.nola.gov/plan/boil-water/
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