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12/14/2023
WT Staff
HAPPENING NOW
Lac des Allemands widespread HAB
Venice, Slidell BWAs
Up to the minute water news for Thursday, December 14, 2023 - last updated 449 pm CST
Boil Water Advisories:
Venice water customers experienced a water outage yesterday after a water line from the Boothville Water Plant supplying Venice was ruptured. A BWA is in effect for Venice following the repair and restoration of water supply until the Department of Health testing shows the water is potable.
Slidell issued a BWA as a precautionary measure following a pressure loss in the distribution lines. This BWA impacts customers in Chamale Cove and Hermadel neighborhoods of Slidell until further notice.
A boil water order remains in effect for customers of the St Martin Waterworks District 3 - Cade water system today.
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
Webster Parish is today the only piece of west Louisiana not appearing on the drought map. As of Thursday, moderate hydrologic drought rating has claimed East Morehouse, Richland and Franklin Parishes in Region 3 and Evangeline and Acadia Parishes in Region 5. Watershed Regions 6 and 8 are as yet untouched by the drought. Region 7 is down to west Washington and west St Tammany left at a normal status.
Extreme drought remains in two areas Thursday, the Saline Bayou Channel in Region 1 and the area from Tensas River to Mississippi River in Region 3. Four areas of severe drought appear the same as yesterday, including 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 has expanded territory today covering a much larger area in the west, anything previously rated normal is today rated moderate drought.
Eight monitors are recording low flow values Thursday afternoon. See the brown tags on the map for details.
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 13 at a high wind speed 18.1 mph. This image offers a clear view of all but central Lake Pontchartrain, with Lake Cataouache and most of Salvador obscured. High wind could be causing an underestimation of the extent of the HABs, as the bloom can be submerged and undetectable to the camera above 4 mph.
No HAB activity is evident in Lake Pontchartrain or Lake Maurepas in this latest image. Given the HAB in Pontchartrain was showing in the December 12 image at a slightly lower wind speed, we expect the HAB remains in the lake but may be mixed down in the water column.
Lake Verret and Lake Palourde blooms are visible again today with a similar appearance as images from taken Dec 11 and 12 with concentration around the 700 thousand cells per 100 ml level. Lac des Allemands and Bayou Fortier are plainly seen today with widespread HAB on the east side of the water bodies at 600 thousand cells per 100 ml. Lake Cataouache is completely cloud obscured, and Lake Salvador HAB peeks through cloud cover at an increasing concentration in the range of 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
Crude oil spill in the Gulf
Unified Command has released an update on the 1.1 million gallons of crude oil discharged into the Gulf of Mexico on or around November 17. The source of the leak has not yet been located, the pipeline remains shut down.
In the latest press briefing from Unified Command, December 5, 2023 the Coast Guard continues to monitor and respond to an oil discharge near the Main Pass Oil Gathering (MPOG) company's pipeline system, known as the MPOG 11015 incident, near Plaquemines Parish, southeast of New Orleans. The cause and source of the incident remain under investigation. The entire length of the main pipeline has been assessed to date, along with 22.16 miles of surrounding pipelines with no damage or indications of a leak identified. Remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) and divers continue to reassess the main pipeline and surrounding pipelines as a sustained effort to locate the source of the suspected release.
Dial 228-273-2400 for claims associated with this incident. To report oiled wildlife in the area, call the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries at 337-735-8677.
National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration NOAA role in supporting Unified Command
From the NOAA Office of Response and Restoration:
"In response to the crude oil release, known as the MPOG 11015 incident, a Unified Command was established by the USCG, the responding party MPOG, and the Louisiana Oil Spill Coordinator's Office, in coordination with NOAA, Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality, Forefront Emergency Management and other federal, state and local agencies to develop and execute a response strategy. For decades, the USCG and NOAA have played a joint role in ensuring vital operational support and response capabilities for oil and chemical spills. After the reports were received, OR&R began deploying to provide response support on-scene to the incident management team, the Federal On-scene Coordinator (U.S. Coast Guard), and Unified Command based in Belle Chasse, Louisiana.
On-scene, response teams identified the leak as crude oil, however, the exact location, time of the release, and the amount of oil is still being evaluated. Initial engineering calculations indicate the potential volume of oil is 1.1 million gallons (about one tenth the size of the Exxon Valdez spill). On November 17, USCG aircraft and NOAA satellite imagery observed a slick of over 40 miles in length, heading southwest from the leak location; however, overflights in the following days observed intermittent surface sheens.
Since November 21, no new or continuous oil discharge has been reported. Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) surveys and assessments are ongoing by the pipeline owners, USCG, and Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) to determine the source location of the spill. ROVs will continue to survey the pipeline, as weather conditions permit." (end of NOAA statement)
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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