Consolidated Water District Board also discusses new well, office
– Equipment failure during the Catahoula water system’s filter backwash process in early July led to the system being unable to provide its own water to residents, St. Martin Water Works District No. 4 manager Ronald Daigle told the St. Martin Parish Consolidated Water District No. 4 board at its July 28 meeting.
The City of St. Martinville provided water to the District 4 system while repairs were being done. St. Martinville’s water system is in the process of merging with the current Catahoula area system and the St. Martin Parish Industrial Park water system to become the consolidated water district.
The filter backwash process cleans clogged filter media by reversing water and air flow in a water treatment plant.
“We had a serious water hammer (a high-pressure shock wave) that damaged the water main-to-discharge out and it damaged the water pump,” Daigle said. “So we lost the ability to push water out. I want to thank Mr. Jonathan (Vining of the St. Martinville city water system) and Mr. Willis (St. Martinville Mayor Jason Willis).”
Daigle said that after the damage to the water output and the pressure pump, the situation was evaluated with input from engineer Nick Sonnier of Sellers & Associates.
“We decided install one of the new pumps that would be installed there, but they also had to modify the base and the stand, so that would take a few more days to do that,” Daigle said. “But thanks to the city (St. Martinville), the water service was good during that time.
“So we got the pump installed and the base installed by the 10th. Actually, the rotation on the pump was wrong. So by the 13th we were able to reset rotation, we did some preliminary tests, and everything worked well then. So we closed the valve and put the pump in service. But again, by midnight that night we had a second blowout of a water main on the property.”
By the time that blowout was isolated, it had drained all of the water that had been stored in the tower, leaving the system without water.
Because Daigle was out of town at the time, Raymond Bernard Jr., the parish’s Director of Administration was called, along with the St. Martinville mayor at around 2 a.m.
By 5 a.m. the water reserves were replenished and the system was pressurized with the community under a boil advisory.
“From there we were able to clear the boil advisory by the Tuesday afterward for the Industrial Park and for Catahoula,” Daigle said. “As of right now we’re still working out a few little kinks in operations, but the system is pressurized and we have water throughout our system.”
Mechanical
There is some discolored water because the system is being flushed still, Daigle said.
The area where the break happened was constructed in the 1970s and didn’t have any stress bolts that current construction methods would have, Daigle said, which may have led to the problem. The section that gave out had been scheduled to be demolished but the consolidation process had not reached that point yet, Daigle added.
St. Martin Parish Council Chairman Chris Tauzin suggested that the water system should consider posting to the Catahoula community Facebook page and the parish government Facebook page when problems occur so that customers can find out more quickly about those issues and not have to call their parish representatives or people on the water board or with the water system.
Parish President Pete Delcambre said that proper documentation would be needed when dealing with work being done in the system, and that it could be integrated into the protocols for the system.
Board member Chuck Latiolais said that if people are working on the problem all day they may not have time to post to Facebook.
Tauzin said he was just suggesting it was a way to let customers know if there’s a break in the line, and that the information could be delivered quickly that was as a simple notification before people start calling all their water system board members or parish representatives.
In other business
Delcambre told the board that drilling of the third well for the consolidated system is in the process of being done, with the test well completed and drilling for the permanent well under way.
Delcambre also said a rough draft of the intergovernmental agreement to be signed by the St. Martin Parish Water Works No. 4 board (Catahoula water system), the City of St. Martinville and the parish (for the Industrial Park water system) has been drawn up and he asked for board members as well as representatives of the city to take a look at the agreement and make notes of any changes they’d suggest or issues they have with the agreement, within the next 30 days.
Negotiations with Bank1 for a building to use as the office for the consolidated water district continue, Delcambre said, and Bank1 is looking at possibly doing either a minimal lease agreement or donation of the property to the water district, either of which would be advantageous to the consolidated water district. Delcambre said he hopes to have news on an agreement in the next 30 days.
The property being discussed was the former office for Judge Paul de Mahy when he was an attorney, and would need construction work done to serve as a place to conduct waterworks business, including dealing with customers and taking payments from customers.
Parking also would need to be secured, and at some point the building would need to provide a drop-off box and drive-through service for customers as well.
The board also considered keeping the Water Works District No. 4 office open one or two days a week for customers in Catahoula, or to have a drop-off box there.
The board postponed appointing a secretary but plans to appoint one at its August meeting. Board secretary Don “Tuffy” Resweber resigned from that post at the previous meeting but remains as a board member.
Bernard, who is working to create a pro forma plan of business for the consolidated water district, asked the board to form an executive committee to meet with him and the others working on the pro forma regularly to help make decisions on things he cannot make decisions on himself.
Engineer Jeremy Fontenot talked about the projects that McBade Engineers and Consultants is working on for the consolidation process, including Water Well No. 3 that is scheduled to be completed within a couple of weeks, with good weather.
The rehabilitation of the other two St. Martinville wells is expected to be completed by Aug. 31, with the first one complete and the second one about halfway completed.
Isolation valve work is expected to be done by Aug. 15. Twelve valves have been installed and five more are scheduled to be installed.
The water line crossing was scheduled to be done by July 31.
Meters and hydrants are scheduled to be finished Aug. 29 but work is anticipated to be done a couple of weeks earlier. Roughly 3,299 meters have been installed with about 100 left to be installed. Twentynine hydrants have been installed.
Sonnier discussed the projects Sellers & Associates engineers are working on for the consolidation process.
Electrical installation continues for the Industrial Park upgrade and that work is awaiting a control panel to arrive. Most of the piping and equipment is installed there. Work is anticipated to be done by mid-September with an official date set for October.
The Catahoula Coulee crossing is awaiting flushing risers to arrive for installation to complete that work.
The contract to install a new interconnection between Catahoula and St. Martinville at Hwy. 96 is awaiting sample results before the work is completed.
Resweber asked if the money from the state was still coming in as expected for the project. The state is funding 75 percent of the consolidation project with the local entities footing the remaining 25 percent as match money.
Sonnier said the state water sector board issued guidance stating that if 75 percent of the project is completed and the parish has requested 75 percent of its grant funds by Sept. 1, the rest of the funds would be provided as one lump payment. That is the target the consolidation project is aiming for, he said.
