Notable New Orleanians: A Tricentennial Tribute

New Orleans was settled by the French in
1718 on high ground next to the Mississippi
River. The city expanded toward Lake
Pontchartrain as settlers moved into surrounding
low-lying areas. Flooding was common,
either from heavy rain or from the river
and the lake overflowing their banks.
Water for drinking or washing was collected
in large cypress cisterns, which stored
rain water from roof tops or taken from
the river and kept in large earthenware jars.
There were no purification or sterilization
procedures. Despite its proximity to the
Mississippi, the city burned in 1788 and
again in 1794, in part because it had no
municipal water supply to fight fires. New
Orleans also lacked any formal method to dispose
of sewage. Human waste went into openpit
privies, while household waste was
dumped in open gutters. These unsanitary
conditions gave rise to typhoid fever, yellow
fever, cholera, and other diseases
that regularly decimated
the population.
City leaders soon realized
that to continue growing, New
Orleans must be kept drained
and dry, supplied with water for
drinking and fire protection;
and equipped with a sanitary
sewerage system. Planning for
the three systems began in
1893. The Sewerage & Water
Board of New Orleans (S&WB)
was authorized in 1899 by
the Louisiana Legislature to
furnish, construct, operate, and
maintain a water treatment and distribution
system and a sanitary sewerage system.
Engineer A. Baldwin Wood, a graduate from
Tulane University, was hired in 1899 to try
and improve the flood prone city’s drainage.
Inventions of the “flapgates” and other
hydraulic machines—which included his
efficient low-maintenance, high volume
pumps—allowed large areas of swampland to
be drained and developed. The S&WB took
over management of the city’s drainage system
in 1903. Mayor Martin Behrman declared in
1914 that the city’s water, sewerage and
drainage systems were “enduring monuments
to the courage, determination and infinite
resourcefulness” of New Orleanians to not
just grow, but thrive.
As New Orleans grew so did S&WB’s
mission. Fresh water is now pumped from
the Mississippi. The S&WB filters and purifies
it before sending it throughout the city.
Wastewater is treated through a gravity collection
system and returned safely to the environment.
Those innovations have all ended
the threat of many water-borne diseases. To
safeguard the city from flooding, S&WB
designed and constructed one of the largest
drainage system on the planet. This system
helped drain the city after Hurricane Katrina
and the failure of the federal levees.
The S&WB is the backbone of New
Orleans because without it, New Orleans simply
could not exist. For more information on
the Sewerage & Water Board of New Orleans,
please visit www.swbno.org.
SEWERAGE &
WATER BOARD
OF NEW
ORLEANS
Top: Cresent Box water meter design has
been used by the Sewerage & Water Board
since 1922.
Bottom: A Sewerage & Water Board of New
Orleans water treatment plant.
BUILDING A GREATER NEW ORLEANS
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