NEW ORLEANS — A series of events at the New Orleans main water plant in the Carrollton neighborhood caused a citywide boil water advisory.
Tuesday night, around seven, a Mylar balloon touched an Entergy line, tripping a circuit feeding power to the plant.
That shut down four pumps and the city’s water system.
SWBNO Executive Dir. Ghassan Korban said, “The power goes off. All the pumps are tripped offline and have to be manually started.”
In the event of a power loss at the treatment plant, the two water towers located on the grounds of the plant can provide uninterrupted water pressure for up to 40 minutes.
The outage lasted about three minutes.
Korban said as an operator was working to turn a water pump back on, he was seriously injured and unable to complete the task.
“This is very hard for all of us today because our coworker has been hospitalized. He has sustained injuries and he’s receiving treatment.”
When others arrived, they tended to the injured worker until EMS arrived.
Last night the two towers did their job, they gave us the 40 minutes, and they maintained the pressure in the system, but the 40 minutes had lapsed, and we needed another 10 minutes to restore all pumping needed and restore the pressure.
The water pressure dropped below 20 pounds per square inch, triggering the boil water advisory for the East bank of New Orleans and parts of Algiers.
City Councilman Joe Giarrusso says it’s difficult to understand how a Mylar balloon can ultimately take down the city’s water system.
“Here we are. It was a clear day. It’s not something that is an act of God sweeping through and we have a boil water advisory. It’s a Mylar balloon, [that] touches an electrical line that causes a problem at the Sewerage and Water Board.”
The boil water advisory will likely remain in effect until Thursday afternoon because of the size of the affected area and the number of water samples that need to be tested.
Mayor LaToya Cantrell, who is also the president of the SWBNO, has not commented on the boil water advisory.
In a statement Entergy said, “Last night at approximately 7:00 p.m. a Mylar balloon 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”).
NOEMS released the following response:
"New Orleans EMS did respond to the Sewerage and Water Board Carrollton Plant. We had a response time of 14 minutes, and did transport one adult male to UMC's trauma center."
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