With serious weather on the horizon, New Orleanians are sharing concerns that the beleaguered Sewerage and Water Board doesn’t have the capacity to absorb several inches of rain in a short period of time - conditions that could once again lead to widespread street flooding. Newell spoke to New Orleans City Councilmember Joe Giarrusso about how the city is preparing for the storm, and also how to spend the $375 million New Orleans will get from the American Rescue Plan.
“Sewerage and Water Board Director Ghassan Korban says that backup power will not be enough if there is a loss of primary source of power, only two turbines available... what are y'all talking about internally?” Newell began.
“We've been living in this fragile state for a year now, and it's been a concern of mine,” Giarrusso said. “I raised it over a year ago… remember, turbine five exploded in December of 2019 and then turbine four was ridden too hard and it went down not long after. So we've been in this state for a long period of time. And essentially you have a couple of different modes of power keeping us up and running right now. There's turbine one, which is, uh, older than you and me put together, and then there's turbine six, which is the jet engine turbine. That's new, has run effectively for a long time, and also can convert from a different power source. The old power runs on 25 hertz, and the newer stuff that the modern age uses runs on 60 hertz. Turbine six can be used to power either source.”
“And then there's the backup EMDs that provide about 12 and a half megawatts of power as well - it's about keeping all those systems up and running,” Giarrusso continued. “And I said this yesterday, Newell - one of the big concerns I always have is not only a rain event, but a wind event too, where power lines go down, or Entergy is having to move stuff around that creates more hiccups in the system. We know turbines four and five are supposed to come back, according to the Sewerage and Water Board. They've repeatedly said publicly that they’ll be back online in May or June. But the other thing is that we need a long-term power solution. For about the past four to six months, I have been meeting with the Sewerage and Water Board and Entergy about a new substation at the Carrollton plant that could provide a dedicated source of power that isn't the turbines. And so that's in the future, but obviously watching very closely what's happening right now and just relying on the main power sources that are available.”
“We've been working on this strategy for a while,” Newell pointed out. “I mean, is there actually a plan and have we identified where the revenue's going to come from in order to support it?
“Great questions. A year ago, I would have said to you, I don't know where the revenue's going to come from, and maybe we can pick some money out of the state capital outlay, and perhaps some of the bond money.” Giarrusso said. “I do think we have a completely unique opportunity at this moment. I was reading the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal last night about the president's proposed $3 trillion infrastructure plan and we have some real opportunities. Number one is that the city's going to get $375 million in stimulus money, plus you have the possibility of an infrastructure package passing in the very short term, and capital outlay money that comes from the state is also in play. And so I think in my mind, if you ask me what the number one focus has to be - it has to be on the power and then the drainage, and then we work on the water and the sewer system.”
“But aren’t we just falling prey to what you and I have talked about a number of times - crisis revenue?” Newell continued. “We always get shots in the arm in the aftermath of an event like a hurricane or otherwise. Obviously the pandemic is a crisis, and a lot of this aid money is as a result of the pandemic, but is that actually something that's sustainable? It just seems to me that, you know, here we go again, just relying on a crisis in order to provide funding.”
“Yeah, I don't want to have to rely on crises,” Giarrusso agreed. “You don't want the crisis to happen in order to get the money. You're a hundred percent right about that. I'm sure you are watching this in Jefferson Parish - this weekend, voters just again approved the millages for their sewer and water system, which shows that when voters think that they're getting value, they're going to approve millages to get work done.”
Hear the entire interview in the audio player below.
