ST. BERNARD PARISH, La. — St Bernard Parish Council voted to take money from their Ida Recovery fund, putting it towards expected saltwater intrusion mitigation.
The Parish President Guy McInnis says he's confident any money spent addressing the saltwater wedge will be reimbursed by the Federal Government. McInnis says this will provide some relief for cash flow.
"We're hoping just to provide as much as we can, for as long as we can for as many citizens as we have," President McInnis said. "It's going to cost us some money to make sure our citizens don't have to deal with the impacts of salinity in their water."
He says the Parish uses nine million gallons of water a day and wants systems in place to ensure at least half of that water is available for use when the wedge gets to the parish. "We have three areas, we're building a reservoir, it's going to bring in some water, fresh water for us. We are looking at reverse osmosis units and that's the most expensive part of it... and connecting a line to the city, to provide fresh water to the Arabi areas."
Council Chair Ritchie Lewis says his biggest concern is whether we're going to get any rain, saying, "If we don't get the rain, my concern is how high does the parts per million go."
For those worried about their appliances, local appliance expert Broussard Appliance says you need to be concerned about your fridge. They say when the wedge gets to you, you can't use the fridge's ice maker, and you should stop using the water in the door.
Broussard said it's okay to keep doing laundry, emphasizing that this will not be water straight out of the Gulf but instead is river water with high salinity levels. They said it's also ok to keep running your dishwasher.
Text WATER to 504-529-4444 for the latest updates on the saltwater intrusion emergency.
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