Tagged: utilities

The New Orleans Sewerage and Water Board has canceled the boil water advisory for the east bank of Orleans Parish, the city announced this afternoon.

The S&WB, in conjunction with the state Department of Health and Hospitals, conducted bacteriological tests on the city's water supply after yesterday's outage, and determined that the water is safe for consumption.

The outage occurred Sunday morning after a fire in the S&WB's main boiler room on South Claiborne Ave. knocked equipment offline, causing water pressure throughout the system to drop below safe levels.

Most New Orleans residents have water service this morning, but it’s not officially safe to drink. A boil-water advisory remains in effect for the east bank of the parish.

The New Orleans Sewerage & Water Board uses a peculiar system made up of equipment and technology cobbled together over more than a century. Here's more on the system (in sharable Tweet-form):

S&WB 25-cycle power system established in 1903.

— Jason Saul (@jasonmsaul) March 3, 2013

This article has been updated.

A boil water advisory for the East Bank of Orleans Parish will remain in effect until further notice, the city announced this morning.

According to Marcia St. Martin, spokeswoman for the Sewerage & Water Board, there was a small fire at approximately 9 a.m. this morning in the boiler room at the Sewerage & Water Board plant on S. Claiborne Ave. The interruption caused a loss of 25-cycle power, and water pressure in the system dipped below 15 psi — the threshold for issuing a boil water advisory.