This is a follow up to WWL-TV's exclusive report. Read the original here.
NEW ORLEANS -- The Sewerage & Water Board responded Friday to a WWL-TV investigation that exposed raw sewage that's been leaking into Lake Pontchartrain for months.
Agency spokesman Rich Rainey said the Sewerage & Water Board has tried several times to plug leaks in the old sewer main that runs under the boathouses that line the Municipal Yacht Harbor.
He said it's a complex issue, in part because the sewer line is embedded in a floodwall, meaning only one side of it is exposed and pipe fittings cannot be placed around its full circumference.
Crews are still trying to get video inside the pipe, but are encountering blockages. They are considering installing a liner to seal the leaks for good.
The agency also wanted to make it clear that a pipe WWL-TV showed at the end of its TV report Thursday is not the Sewerage & Water Board's responsibility.
It is a smaller pipe running under a boathouse owned by Maggie Hadleigh-West, who originally complained about the sewer leaks. As WWL-TV showed, when she flushes the toilet, all the water goes directly into the lake.
Rainey says she is responsible for reconnecting that pipe now that the Sewerage & Water Board has re-established a connection to the sewer main at the floodwall.