Power failure blamed in New Orleans water issues

AP via Yahoo News ^ | 3/4/13 | Janet Mcconnaughey

[Kartographer]

Taps in New Orleans briefly went dry Sunday after a boiler's heating flame went out of control in the immense steam generator that powers pumps for the city's water treatment plant. Marcia St. Martin, executive director of the city's Sewerage and Water Board, said the outage lasted less than 20 minutes Sunday morning. Twitter came alive with residents bemoaning the loss about 9 a.m. Central time, and Mayor Mitch Landrieu tweeted to his followers that the city was looking into the matter. The loss of pressure opened the way for possible contamination and water samples are being taken citywide, she said. She said all sample collection should be complete by Sunday afternoon, and results should be available about 24 hours later. It takes that long to detect high levels of intestinal bacteria that could cause diarrhea.

[TEXOKIE]

Thanks for the information and clarification!

[TEXOKIE]

Thanks for the link!

[Ladysmith]

I have one of these but hesitate to use until absolutely necessary. The info with it states once you start using it, it’s only good for six months. Does anyone know if they’ll actually last longer than that or does that sound about right?

[Fresh Wind]

Cutting edge water pump they got there.

There's a good chance that pump's been there for a century or so.

[Kartographer]

Almost all filters I have ever seen have a limited use, but it is usually determined by the amount and the quality of the water you are running through, but not time.

[yorkiemom]

The plant operator messed up. At least it was just a minor loss of water flow. Remember the steam line that blew in NYC a couple of years ago. A 24” line at 175PSI IIRC. Ka flipping boom!

Oh great. Then this gives the feds more reason for federal intrusion to add on more requirements for power plants to have to comply with. Remember the grid shutdown in NE a while back? Out of that came a slew of regulations that cost power plants (and of course was passed down to the consumers) a ton of money to comply with. Some were good and necessary, but as with all things government-related, many were overkill and not practical.