METAIRIE, La. — There's progress along West Napoleon Avenue, after last week's heavy rainfall caused a sewage main to burst.
"We were able to put a temporary patch on the break," said Public Works Director, Mark Drewes. "It has a minor leak in it, which we're monitoring."
Drewes says the leak is small, but is putting sewage into the canal.
"We literally have a small pump there pumping the hole," he said. "So as the leak comes out we're pumping it and directing it right back into the West Napoleon Canal and what we're doing every night, we will open fire hydrants in that area and we will flush that water in to attempt to just further dilute the sewer that's going into the canal."
The water in that canal eventually ends up in the lake. Drewes says they're testing it constantly before it gets there to make sure everything is at the appropriate level.
"The dissolved oxygen levels are fairly consistent," he said. "They're okay within a reasonable range, and we haven't had any fish killed which would be an indication as well that we would have a significant problem so, so far the testing has been fairly positive."
The Pontchartrain Conservancy has been monitoring this situation very closely actually taking samples from Lake Pontchartrain on Tuesday. They say those results should be available in the next few days.
"We don't know yet what we'll find with this sample but certainly interested in the results," said Dr. Brady Skaggs, the Water Quality Program Director.
Dr. Skaggs says tests look for three different organisms that show if fecal matter is in the water. He hopes their latest tests will be clear.
"What we're most concerned about is for folks either swimming or boating, recreating that they could come into contact with a pathogen, a microorganism that causes disease that's in sewage."
So far so good, but until a permanent fix is made, testing from both parties will continue.
Drewes says a permanent fix of the sewer main is expected in about three weeks, that of course is weather dependent.