PLAQUEMINES PARISH, La. (WGNO) — Plaquemines Parish has been fighting the saltwater intrusion for months. Many residents are growing frustrated with the timetable for clean water.
“It took it coming to Belle Chasse up the road for them to finally do something about it, so I’m kind of angry at our officials actually,” Plaquemines Parish resident Suzanne Madere said.
Thankfully, more help is on its way, as parish officials have acquired reverse osmosis machines for each water treatment facility with some of them arriving this week.
“I was here at 6 o’clock this morning and probably won’t leave until 6 o’clock this evening. Trying to precure the machines and signing contracts to be able to expedite it and get these machines in place,” Plaquemines Parish President Keith Hinkley said.
This is just the beginning though as it will take time to bring in each machine.
In total, the Boothville-Venice plant will need a one-million-gallon machine, the Port Sulphur facility will need two, Belle Chase will need five, the Delacour plant on the east bank needs one and the east Pointe a la Hache facility needs one half-million-gallon machine, all coming in 18-wheeler size trailers.
“If you add up all of those trailers, multiply them by two because not only do you have the reverse osmosis trailers, but they each need a micro-filtration system for them as well,” Hinkley said.
Each machine costs roughly $50,000 per month per half a million gallons according to Hinkley. Thankfully, the emergency declaration will help pay for some of it.
“I believe that at this point, we are about 20 million dollars just in Plaquemines Parish for expenses; not at this point, but we’re obligated right now for that much,” Hinkley said.
Stay up to date with the latest news, weather and sports by downloading the WGNO app on the Apple or Google Play stores and by subscribing to the WGNO newsletter.
