Project engineers expect state to provide remaining funds soon
– Work is about 80 percent complete on the various projects under contract in the consolidation process that will bring the St. Martin Parish Consolidated Water District No. 4 into being, the district’s board heard at its August meeting this past Tuesday.
Engineer Nick Sonnier of Sellers and Associates also told the board that about that the project is about 89 percent complete as far as the funds requested from the state water sector board.
The engineers had been aiming to complete 75 percent of the project and spend 75 percent of the funding by Sept. 1 to meeting water sector board requirements, Sonnier said. The board met last week and provided guidance to the engineers just prior to the waterworks district meeting, stating that if all projects were under contract and the consolidated waterworks board could sign certification stating that the funds will go to a separate account, the water sector board would give the local waterworks board the rest of the funds the consolidation project had applied for.
“We’ve really already met our 75-75 obligation, so we’re going to get the rest of our funds anyway, but that’s just the way the water sector board is trying to move forward,” Sonnier said. “They want to give you your money. They want to give the recipients or the grantees their funds, and they’re just trying to figure out how to do it. So it seems like they’ve done that.”
Work on the St. Martinville Industrial Park project is 86 percent complete as electrical work continues there, Sonnier said.
Drilling of the new well has been completed and installation of the waterline up to the well site has been installed, engineer Jeremy Fontenot of McBade Engineers and Consultants told the board. The contractor is working on installation of electrical conduits to the well site and after pump tests are done, work will begin on ancillary structures on top of the concrete pad for the well.
Work is about 68 percent done with completion date set for Dec. 14.
Rehabilitation of Water Well No. 2 is about 85 percent done, he added.
Work on the isolation valves in the system is complete with only minor dress-up work to be finished.
All meters that were located and able to be installed have been done, a total of 3,386. There are 34 meters that have not been completed because of locations that are inaccessible or unable to be located or that have leaky water lines. A few large meter sizes will be reviewed and installed with a change order that will come at no cost because funds are still available for the meter changes in the contract.
Work
Twenty-nine fire hydrants also were installed under the contract.
St. Martin Parish President Pete Delcambre brought up the issue of questions from customers regarding the size of their water bills once the changeover is made to the consolidated district.
Delcambre, St. Martinville Mayor Jason Willis, St. Martinville Water Manager Jonathan Vining and St. Martin Water District 4 Water Manager Ronald Daigle all noted that the old water meters were often inefficient in their readings whereas the new digital meters are more accurate. As a result, water bills could be more than customers are used to receiving.
In addition, the new meters and the new computer software that goes with them can detect when there is a leak or running water at a customer’s location. The software provides a report every morning flagging potential leaks, Fontenot said, and the water district can address them before water has been running for days.
Willis said the new meters will likely lead to a 15 percent increase in bills because they are more efficient and accurate. He also warned that many people don’t realize they have a leak, many of which are from leaking flaps in the tanks of their toilets, which can lead to a big bill if it leaks the entire month.
Daigle said it may take a few months under the new system to understand how the system is working, and that the new meters are 90 percent efficient. He also reminded customers to call the Catahoula water office if they have discoloration or other issues with their water so that the water district can address those issues. Posting to Facebook does not notify the water district of the problem and leads to delays in fixing those problems.
Board member Don “Tuffy” Resweber asked if water discoloration that many customers in the Catahoula area experience at times will continue to be an issue when water is coming from the new well and not from the Industrial Park source that the district currently uses.
Daigle said that the discoloration and inclusion of iron in water, or turbidity violations (suspended solid particles or organic debris that makes water cloudy or murky) are secondary violations that are not health risks but are physical violations.
Discolored water results from changing the direction or the velocity of water through pipes, which scours loose particles that coat the inside of pipes, Daigle said.
The water in Catahoula currently has to be treated chemically because it has higher inclusions of iron and arsenic than the new water source will have. That means less flushing of water in the system, likely leading to less discoloration.
But Daigle stressed that there is no 100 percent guarantee that there will be no water discoloration in the future.
In other business
Chuck Latiolais was unanimously voted the secretary/treasurer for the board at the recommendation of board President Donnie Laviolette.
Parish Director of Administration Raymond Bernard Jr. told the board that an advisory board had been set up, as discussed at the previous month’s meeting, and had met three times already.
Work is being done to determine what the best health insurance benefits and retirement benefits options are available to the employees of the future water district. Discussions have been held with the state’s Municipal Employees’ Retirement System of Louisiana (MERS) for city and town workers, and the Parochial Employees’ Retirement System of Louisiana (PERSLA) for parish workers, to see if employees currently in one system can be brought into the other system as parish employees (the Catahoula/ St. Martin Water District No. 4) and city employees (St. Martinville) move to new jobs with the consolidated water district, and which plan might best fit their needs.
