Members of the New Orleans City Council appeared to grow frustrated Tuesday as they attempted to figure out why there was a power interruption to drainage pumps during the torrential rain earlier this month, and who was responsible.
Councilmember Jason Hughes was getting frustrated with what he said was a lack of direct answers from both the Sewerage and Water Board and Entergy.
"We ask very direct questions, at a very elemental level, and we get this technical, academic, pontificated response," said Hughes. "The council president's question was very direct. Who bears responsibility? It's not a trick question."
Hughes said he and the public sees the utilities' responses as evasive, and it only hurts their trust in Entergy and the Sewerage and Water Board.
Company officials told the council that their lawyers advised against phrases like "fault" and "responsibility." Ultimately, the Sewerage and Water Board said they had safety setting that was set too low for a voltage fluctuation which Entergy says was not out of the ordinary.
Council President J.P. Morrell told both utilities that it should not take this much effort for them to provide answers:
"I think you would be surprised that if you told the public, 'yeah, this is a new power plant, we didn't have the equipment calibrated correctly. We have now solved that problem going forward. This was a mistake; that was our responsibility,' it's easier for the public and this council to stomach that than to constantly have this back and forth."
