CEAC-2020-10-October
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State Highway 27 leading to Cameron, La. is seen in Creole, La., Friday, Aug. 28 <strong>2020</strong>, as the storm surge recedes in the aftermath of Hurricane Laura. (AP<br />
Photo/Gerald Herbert)<br />
(Continued from page 13)<br />
The committee came after Edwards in December 2016<br />
declared a public health emergency in the small northeast<br />
Louisiana town of St. Joseph and urged people not to use<br />
the water coming out of their taps because the state found<br />
elevated levels of lead and copper in the system.<br />
The state trucked in water to residents while $8.6 million<br />
went into a new water treatment and distribution plant for<br />
St. Joseph. In March 2018, Edwards lifted the public health<br />
emergency.<br />
St. Joseph’s water troubles were a warning about the risks of<br />
aging infrastructure, particularly in rural communities that<br />
no longer have the financial abilities to maintain the systems.<br />
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The state’s problems are extensive, according to an infrastructure<br />
report card issued by the American Society of Civil<br />
Engineers. The organization’s latest assessment in 2017 gave<br />
Louisiana a D-minus grade for its drinking water, similar to<br />
the prior report card issued five years earlier.<br />
“Louisiana’s drinking water infrastructure is aging, and little<br />
is being done to replace or upgrade many of the current<br />
systems in place,” the engineers said in the report.<br />
In a survey released a year later, the U.S. Environmental Protection<br />
Agency estimated Louisiana’s 20-year funding needs<br />
for drinking water infrastructure topped $7 billion.<br />
Hurricane Laura’s destruction emphasized how important<br />
basic infrastructure, such as a functioning water system, is<br />
to home and businesses. It also may force some of the most<br />
heavily damaged systems to build stronger to meet updated<br />
regulations, while administrators of other water systems may<br />
simply find it wise to harden their infrastructure.<br />
Ames said she hoped “if they did have issues that were<br />
directly correlated to failing infrastructure or old infrastructure,<br />
that they would take it upon themselves to try to bring<br />
their system into a newer day.”<br />
Of course, even the best built systems aren’t necessarily made<br />
to withstand the powerful winds of a Category 4 hurricane.<br />
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