By ROBIN SHANNON

Staff Reporter

LAPLACE — As of Tuesday afternoon, St. John government officials said that the parish’s highly anticipated tap water filtration system is sending “bottled quality” water to the residents of LaPlace — and this time they mean it.

Utilities Director Ralph Bean said contaminant-free water from the parish’s $3.3 million Nano Filtration system has been flowing into the city’s water system since Monday and said residents should start to begin to notice a change in water quality.

“It is still going to take some time to get to each house on our system, but the higher quality water is being sent to homes right now,” Bean said. “There are still some tweaks we have to make, but the system is running smoothly.”

St. John Public Information Officer Buddy Boe said it would be approximately two weeks before all homes and businesses see a change in water quality.

Boe said Tuesday’s announcement offers some finality to a project that got its start almost two years ago, when parish officials decided to install the Nano Filtration system to clean up water coming from the Ruddock well. The system was needed to comply with a 2002 mandate from the Environmental Protection Agency that said the parish must eliminate high levels of triahlomenthanes, a proven cancer-causing agent, from the region’s water supply. Installation of the system suffered countless setbacks including a back order of materials, miscommunication over pressure and the collapse of radio towers in the aftermath of Hurricane Gustav in September.

“It’s finally in place, and we are all very happy that it is working and working well,” said Parish President Bill Hubbard. “I hope the residents share that excitement.”

Bean explained that the system uses high-pressure pumps to send raw water through a series of pre-filters that use reverse osmosis to separate contaminants from pure water. The pure water is then sent into another series of filter membranes. The system consists of three sets of membranes, and Bean said each machine has the capability of processing 1.5 million gallons of water per day.

Before the filtered water is sent to the system of pipes for public consumption, the water collects in a ground-level storage tank where it is treated with a small amount of chlorine. Bean said the chlorine treatment is mandatory for disinfectant purposes. Following final treatment, the water is then sent to another series of pumps and out to the residents.

Kade Gibson, a representative from General Electric, the manufacturer of the filter system, has been on hand for the past two weeks to train plant operators and monitor the system for tweaks. He said the technology behind the Nano Filtration system is the same used by companies who sell bottled water.

“We’ve installed a system like this for various industries, who use it on a limited basis,” Gibson said. “This is the first municipality in the state to use this type of technology for public water consumption.”

Gibson said the filters require regular maintenance and cleaning to remove clogs, but they don’t require replacement for several years.

“We have seen some last as long as ten years without replacement,” said Gibson. “The system is designed so that it does not need to run continuously.”

Bean said once the final tweaks are done, the parish council and representatives from the Department of Health and Hospitals and Department of Environmental Quality would get a tour of the facility. He said the DHH is particularly interested because they were initially reluctant about installation.

Boe said although the system is working and sending contaminant-free water to homes and businesses, residents will continue to get notices about the water quality at least until the end of the year. He said the DEQ and DHH test water quality each quarter, but use a 12-month average to determine whether notices get sent out.

“Until we have a majority of good tests, the water will still warrant a poor quality notice,” said Boe. “But the quality of water residents are receiving is the quality that has been promised.”