ERIK SANZENBACH / L’Observateur / September 13, 2000

LAPLACE – The only people unhappy the water system is working again in LaPlace are the students who had to go to school Monday morning.

In order to replace a worn out pump at the Ruddock well and relocate a water main, parish officials turned off water to LaPlace starting at midnight Saturday.

Residents of LaPlace had been warned the shutdown could last between 24 to 36 hours. If the work had not been finished by Monday morning, some parishschools were not going to open.

But, much to the relief of business owners and the chagrin of LaPlace students, St. John the Baptist Parish President Nickie Monica officially calledoff the water emergency 14 hours after it had started and LaPlace was swimming in water again by 2:30 Sunday afternoon.

“We are relieved,” said Chris Guidry, chief administrative officer for St. JohnParish.

Relieved because there was no major setbacks or disasters during the shut- off. Relieved that the Ruddock well will continue to supply fresh water to thetown of LaPlace. Relieved the problems with the well have been solved.”This has been an ongoing problem for two administrations,” said Guidry. “Butnobody wanted to deal with the issue of turning off the water to fix the problem.”On Friday afternoon the Monica administration was being severely criticized for not giving the community enough time to prepare for the shutdown.

Restaurant and bar owners were especially upset because they would have to close down for a day due to health code requirements.

However, the parish administration seemed prepared to deal with both the criticism and any emergency that may have arisen during the water shutoff.

The National Guard, Schneider Trucking and Abita Springs Water all donated water trucks so there would be enough water for fire emergencies and general water use. Fire stations were stationed with two-man crews for 24hours, and prisoners at the parish jail and the elderly at residence homes in LaPlace all had their own water trucks.

“We tried to make it as easy as possible,” said Guidry. “And we hoped we hadcovered every contingency.”Director of Public Works Henry DiFranco, who was in charge of both projects at the Ruddock well, said, “Everything went very smooth, and our water reserves were high.”DiFranco said they put the 24-hour time limit on the project because the contractors who were putting in the new pump had told parish officials the job would take between 12 and 24 hours.

DiFranco, who was up for “forty-something hours” during the change-over, said both the new pump and the new water main were in a neck-and-neck race.

“We finished both projects at roughly the same time,” said DiFranco.

The biggest hold up would have been if the system had lost water pressure.

If that had happened, the parish would have had to re-pressurize the system, clean it out and purge the pipes. Then water samples would have had to besent to labs in Baton Rouge for testing to make sure that the water was safe to drink. This would have meant that schools could not have opened onMonday and residents would have had to boil their water until the state declared it safe.

Luckily, that didn’t happen.

There are two wells at Ruddock, and the pump that was being changed provided over 75 percent of LaPlace’s water. The other pump produced theother 25 percent and kept up system pressure.

“We didn’t lose system pressure at all,” said DiFranco. “If we had, we wouldstill be working on it today.”That’s not to say there weren’t a few flies in the ointment.

DiFranco and his crew got a little nervous when a high speed police chase Sunday morning knocked over a fire hydrant on Fairway Drive. The loss of allthat water could have really compromised the system’s pressure.

Fortunately, there was a valve to turn the water off at the hydrant.

“If that valve hadn’t been there the parish would have been bone-dry by Sunday afternoon,” said DiFranco.

But the well is fixed and the water is running and it is safe.

One of the benefits of the new well is the increase of water to LaPlace. Thenew pump pushes 36,060 gallons of water per minute to LaPlace, 1,100 more gallons per minute than the old pump.

“The new pump means the water system will run more efficiently,” said Guidry. “This will save the parish money.”The next step for the parish is to start thinking about a new water supply.

“If growth continues in LaPlace, ” said DiFranco, “we will be in another water crises by 2004. We have to seriously consider another water source forLaPlace.”DiFranco said the parish has two solutions, to dig another well farther north of Ruddock or build a surface water plant at the Mississippi River.

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