Not a good report. You either got an A or B or an F.
More than two-thirds of Louisiana’s more than 950 water systems rated an A or B in the state’s first set of ratings, released May 1 in accordance with a law passed by the legislature in 2021. About 15% of water systems, 138, received D or F grades, according to the data released Monday. The ratings are based on a number of factors, including financial sustainability, infrastructure quality, operation and maintenance and whether the system has violated state for federal water quality standards. They are compiled based on data from 2022 by the Louisiana Department of Health. Receiving a low grade does not necessarily mean that the water is unsafe to drink, LDH’s water grade website says. But it should cause local residents and officials to reflect on whether the system should be combined with other systems, said Sen. Fred Mills, R-Parks, who authored the bill that established the grading system. “If you have a water system and your grade is a D or an F there should be a conversation at the local level,” he said. “Consolidation is maybe a key.”
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Preliminary grades were released the first of the year with fewer in the D and F range.
Preliminary grades for the state’s approximately 950 water systems were released in January. Then, 130 systems were rated as Ds or Fs. The preliminary grades did not include data for financial sustainability or customer satisfaction. The largest of the 130 in the preliminary grades, Jefferson Parish Water Works Dist. 2, which serves the West Bank, earned an A in the final grades, after initially getting a D. Parish officials were able to persuade state regulators to take into account improvements made on Grand Isle after Hurricane Ida, Water Director Sidney Bazely said Monday. They also noted work done on a Harvey water tower that had caused a reduction in grade, he said. The parish’s east bank water system also received an A. Other large water systems in south Louisiana received passing grades. All of East Baton Rouge is served by systems receiving an A or a B. New Orleans’ east bank water system received a C while the West Bank of Orleans got a B. The majority of Lafayette Parish residents live in A or B systems, while only four systems received Cs. Many of the struggling districts are small and serve rural parishes, the state’s data shows. About 5% of Louisiana residents live in a district that was rated with a D or an F. More than three-quarters live in water systems rated A or B, the data shows. For instance, more than half of the residents in rural Sabine Parish, in the northwest part of the state, live in failing systems, the data shows.
The bill was addressed to show and help those systems that need help.
Mill authored the bill to help address many of the state’s water system’s infrastructure and sustainability problems. “Clean drinking water is such a fundamentally important part of our existence,” Mills said. “I know the water system grades will be a valuable tool for consumers and an incentive for water systems to make their infrastructure a priority.” In 2017, an American Society of Civil Engineers report estimated that more than half of the state’s approximately 1,200 water systems — including many that are not subject to the grading system — are run on infrastructure that is more than 50 years old. Shrinking populations in many areas have led to deferred maintenance and upgrades, with the effect that some systems are now crumbling or facing crippling upkeep costs. LDH officials have estimated that the state’s water systems need $9 billion in upgrades over the next two decades. Last year, legislators earmarked $450 million for water and sewer systems. Federal money is also available, LDH’s Amanda Ames noted. “More state and federal funding has become available to water systems that will allow them to make the improvements that will help raise their letter grade,” Ames said.
I expected higher than a C as Algiers got a B. But our system is old.