Ok, so they have a month before every water intake for their system is salty, the scale of water need for the city makes it unfeasible to ship it in, and they have no idea when they'll be able to...
Ok, so they have a month before every water intake for their system is salty, the scale of water need for the city makes it unfeasible to ship it in, and they have no idea when they'll be able to actually start pumping water from further upstream. It sounds like there's not actually a plan that will provide water to all the people living in New Orleans come November? What then?
Downstream on the Mississippi, Plaquemines Parish acquired reverse osmosis units to filter saltwater at all five of its water treatment plants, parish president Keith Hinkley told CNN on Tuesday. Hinkley believes the parish will have three online and cleaning water by next week. Two-thousand Plaquemines residents were the first to be affected by the saltwater wedge in mid-June.
But New Orleans’ Carrollton water treatment facility alone produces 135 million gallons per day for the east bank of Orleans Parish, according to the New Orleans Sewerage and Water Board website – an amount officials said is too large to cover with reverse osmosis and water barging.
Unsafe-to-drink saltwater is forecast by the US Army Corps of Engineers to reach New Orleans’ smaller Algiers water intake around October 22, and the Carrollton intake by October 28.
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Arnold said the estimated cost to build a pipeline upriver could be between $100 million and $250 million. He said they hope to be reimbursed by the federal government for part of that cost.
He also noted the underwater sill, which the US Army Corps of Engineers began extending this week, can only buy so much time before the saltwater wedge reaches larger populations. “Every day we’re not building pipe is a lost day in that regard,” he said.
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New Orleans Sewerage and Water Board officials indicated that they’ve exhausted other avenues to mitigate the issue and have homed in on a few options, including the pipeline. They did not yet have an estimate for when work could begin on such a pipeline.
Reintroducing some minerals (remineralization) is pretty cheap and easy to do; it’s how whole house RO is done, at least. I’d imagine something similar is done here.
Reintroducing some minerals (remineralization) is pretty cheap and easy to do; it’s how whole house RO is done, at least. I’d imagine something similar is done here.
This is rather surprising, I happen to be in NOLA this week and had no idea that this was happening. OP article also links to another article explaining in more detail why this is happening:...
This is rather surprising, I happen to be in NOLA this week and had no idea that this was happening.
Ok, so they have a month before every water intake for their system is salty, the scale of water need for the city makes it unfeasible to ship it in, and they have no idea when they'll be able to actually start pumping water from further upstream. It sounds like there's not actually a plan that will provide water to all the people living in New Orleans come November? What then?
From the article:
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I thought you couldn't drink water purified by reverse osmosis because it leeches minerals from your body?
Reintroducing some minerals (remineralization) is pretty cheap and easy to do; it’s how whole house RO is done, at least. I’d imagine something similar is done here.
This is rather surprising, I happen to be in NOLA this week and had no idea that this was happening.
OP article also links to another article explaining in more detail why this is happening: https://www.cnn.com/2023/09/26/us/saltwater-intrusion-new-orleans-mississippi-climate/index.html