Water advisory lifted for the City of Ville Platte
By: CARISSA HEBERT
Managing Editor
A boil advisory for water was lifted Wednesday morning, March 5, for the City of Ville Platte.
In a release from city hall, Mayor Bill Jeanmard said, “The City of Ville Platte’s Water System officially rescinds and/or cancels the boil advisory. We have received notification from the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals (DHH) that the additional water quality tests show the water to be safe. The advisory was voluntary and was only a precaution. We would like to thank the public for their cooperation and understanding. Again, there is no further need to boil water from the City of Ville Platte Water System.”
The boil water advisory was issued late Monday after DHH learned the city had a water break Friday evening and there was a possibility the city’s drinking water had become contaminated.
On Friday evening, February 29, the city had to shut the water off after 10 p.m. to repair a break in the main line. On Monday, the city reported the incident to DHH, according to Jody White, district engineer for public health. She said according to the sanitary code, anytime the water pressure drops below 15 psi’s, a boil advisory is issued as a precautionary measure until samples can be taken to ensure no ground water was allowed into the system.
Dr. Tina Steffanski, administrator for DHH for this region, explained samples were taken and sent to the lab, and they were negative, indicating no bacteria was confirmed in the water.
The city usually sends its samples of water to DHH on a monthly basis, but White explained bacteriological samples were taken of the water, once DHH learned of the break, and the samples were sent to the lab. She said the boil advisory was necessary until DHH was assured the water had not be contaminated, and the city voluntarily agreed to issue the boil advisory. If the samples were negative, then the boil advisory would be lifted. If they had been positive, the city would have had to flush its system and do other things to correct the problems.
When asked why the public was not notified until Monday after Friday evening’s water break, Jeanmard explained the water was never considered dangerous to the public. On Monday, they discussed the situation with DHH, and he said, “I was not comfortable with the information we had and felt we could not validate the data. Therefore, we issued the voluntary advisory.”
Jeanmard said he immediately contacted local media sources to notify the public. He said as a result of this incident, there were no documented procedures in place, but as of Tuesday, they are now working on a draft so they can be prepared for an emergency, if a situation should arise.
Liz Hill, director of the Office of Emergency Preparedness for Evangeline Parish, contacted the governor’s office about the water situation here. On Tuesday, local schools closed because of the water situation. The Department of Agriculture was notified and they delivered seven pallets of water Tuesday evening. Hill said one-half pallet went to the nursing home, one-half went to the hospital and the school board received the other six pallets. She said there are approximately 35 cases of water per pallet, which is about 8,000 bottles of water. The drinking water supply allowed schools to open Tuesday morning.
Shortly after 8:30 a.m., the city issued its press release saying the boil advisory was lifted.
Local agencies involved in dealing with this crisis explained they have learned a lot about this situation and will use the knowledge if another situation arises.