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12/13/2023
WT Staff
HAPPENING NOW
Lake Pontchartrain HAB in view today
St Martin Water District 3 - Cade BWA
Up to the minute water news for Wednesday, December 13, 2023 - last updated 1037 am CST
Boil Water Advisories:
St. Martin Parish - a boil water order applies to customers of the St Martin Waterworks District 3 - Cade water system following a service disruption Monday. Officials cite electrical problems for the outage. All customers are under a boil-water advisory until further notice.
The Jones McGinty Water System BWA remains in effect for customers connecting on Old Bonita Road until further notice.
Refer to yellow tags on the map for more BWAs in effect in the state of Louisiana. Also see the latest EPA Safe Drinking Water Act list of Serious Violators under the SDWA button to the right of the map.
Drought Situation Intensifies from USGS 7-day average streamflows
At this point it would be a short report to write about the parts of Louisiana not rated with some degree of drought. Webster Parish escapes the drought map in watershed Region 1. East Morehouse, Richland and Franklin Parishes are still rated normal and not appearing on the drought map in Region 3. Evangeline and Acadia remain an island of normal in the midst of drought-afflicted Region 5. Watershed Regions 6 and 8 are untouched by the drought. Region 7 is down to Washington and St Tammany left untouched.
Extreme drought remains in two areas of Louisiana Wednesday, including the Saline Bayou Channel in Region 1 and the area from Tensas River to Mississippi River in Region 3. Four areas of severe drought include central Morehouse Parish in Region 3, Calcasieu River channel and a strip along the southwest border in Region 4, and the Tangipahoa River channel in Region 7. Moderate drought today covers a large area of Region 3 at the north border joining the majority of Region 4 and 5 area at moderate drought again today.
Note WaterToday reports day-to-day changes recorded by USGS streamflow monitors on rivers and tributaries located in Louisiana, along with monitors upstream in the Mississippi River basin: Ohio, Georgia and southwest New York state. USGS creates a drought map from 7-day average streamflow readings, by comparing the average with the historic weekly normal flow value for each location. The drought ratings are below normal, moderate hydrologic drought, severe drought and extreme drought.
HABs Report from National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science (NCCOS) satellite monitoring program
NCCOS has supplied an image taken December 12 at a high wind speed 16.2 mph. This image clear, with an unobstructed view of Lake Pontchartrain and water bodies to the south and west. Note the high wind is associated with submerged HABs, resulting in underestimation of the HAB area.
Extensive HAB activity is visible along the east shore of Lake Pontchartrain appearing as a band of small dispersed HABs scattered over an area 3 to 5 miles wide in the main water body, extending lakewide past Irish Bayou and into the east water bodies. Concentration matches the color scale for a moderate HAB, 100 thousand cells per 100 ml. The area and density of these blooms may be underrepresented due to the high wind speed when the image was captured. Lake Maurepas appears to have no HAB activity.
Lake Verret and Lake Palourde blooms are visible today with a similar appearance as in the previous picture, taken Dec 11. The concentration remains high, around the 700 thousand cells per 100 ml level. Lac des Allemands and Bayou Fortier have some cloud cover obscuring the view, a widespread HAB is visible toward the east side of Lac des Allemands matching the color scale for 500 to 600 thousand cells per 100 ml. Lake Cataouache is completely cloud obscured, and Lake Salvador appears filled with HABs of the high concentration 600 to 700 thousand cells per 100 ml.
See the bluegreen tags on our map give the interpretation of the last clear image available for each water body.
Hazardous Spills emergency and non-emergency incidents reported to Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality
A spill of crude oil reported in November coming from a leaking pipeline at an unspecified facility in Hackberry, CAmeron Parish. The report says the crude oil is leaking on the ground impacting soil, no water bodies are listed in connection with this spill.
Note about hazardous spill incident reporting, from LDEQ: Information contained in the Field Interview form is the preliminary observation of the inspector. This should not be construed as a final determination of LDEQ, its officers or personnel as to any matter, including compliance or non-compliance with statutes, regulations and permits.
Each day of non-compliance is considered a separate violation of the Louisiana Environmental Quality Act.
See the pink tags on the map with the watershed layer turned on, showing the potential impact zone of hazardous spills in the environment. Refer to the Spills button on the right of the map for more incident reports filed this year.
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