Realities the New Orleans Sewerage and Water Board Wants Kept Secret

Having spent most of my professional career in the field of statistics, I can assure the citizens of New Orleans that the latest rate increases proposed by the Sewerage and Water Board will NEVER result in any state of the art improvements in the sewerage or water system.  The system has been so mismanaged and neglected over the years, along with Katrina damage, that the costs to repair it properly are astronomical.

In 2011, by the board’s own estimates of the water delivery system,  over 1,400 miles of pipe must be replaced on the east bank alone plus manholes, valves, meters, mains and booster pumps that blast purified water to customers.  And that doesn’t even address the needs on the west bank.
 
Pre-Katrina cost estimates to repair the water system alone were 3.2 billion dollars and would take 20 years.  During the twenty years, due to inflation, the repair costs would continue to rise at a faster rate than the money taken in even with the rate increase.  The sewerage system estimated repairs were even higher.

FEMA gave the city over 190 million dollars (68 immediately following Katrina plus 125 more in 2010) to repair Katrina damage to the sewerage and water systems.  Have you noted any vast improvements?

It amounts to trying to put out a forest fire with a garden hose.

The present Sewerage and Water Board proposed increases may result in a new electrical system for the pumps, and some new pumps, but the main infra-structure that delivers the clean water to your home and removes the sewer water, namely the pipes themselves, won’t see any improvement.  According to the Sewerage and Water Board over 50% of the purified water pumped to homes daily is lost to leaks in the  water system pipes.  And all of us are aware of the increased street flooding  and sewer backups that now occur.

The system does  need repair, but the present plan of attempting to do it totally on the backs of the customers is not only fiscally irresponsible, but fiscally impossible.  The money will never be used for its intent because there won’t be enough of it.  The monies will just be used for continuing system  patch work  repairs.

It’s time for the New Orleans Sewerage and Water Board to level with the citizens of New Orleans. They cannot supply some state of the art water and sewerage system,  and the monies they are requesting is simply an attempt to stem off the Federal Government from leveling tremendous fines if they don’t appear to give the impression that they trying to fix a broken system.

The citizens of New Orleans also need to be aware of the fact that most of the managers and administrators of the Sewerage and Water Board are the same individuals that are responsible for its demise over the years.  Do you really want to trust your monies to the same individuals who lacked the vision and foresight to develop a viable fiscal plan to stem off this present calamity?  It’s time for a total change starting with top management, before implementing any rate increases.