By LEONARD GRAY

AMA – Residents and businesses in the town of Ama should take extra care to avoid fires, as the availability of water for fire-fighting is severely crippled for the next three or four weeks.

St. Charles Parish Waterworks Director Robert Brou told the St. Charles Parish Council at a meeting this week of the water emergency in the area, and added arrangements have been made to back up the Luling Volunteer Fire Department, should they have to respond to any fire emergency. In light of Brou’s comments, the council passed an emergency approval of a bid advertisement for a contractor to install a replacement water line.

Brou said the 10-inch water line, coming from near U.S. Highway 90 to the rear of Anna Street at the ADM Growmark grain elevator, was first installed in 1973 with a 25-year life expectancy. Now overdue for replacement, the line began a series of leaks 18 months ago in the marshes between Ama and the highway, in an area accessible only by marsh buggy.

The asbestos-cement line normally holds up well to internal pressure, but if it is knocked, it is fragile from the outside.

Starting July 15, Brou told the council, a series of blowouts were noticed and work crews were on the job all that day, returning the following morning and continuing through the early-morning hours of July 18. “It’s still leaking,” Brou said.

The problem area was isolated between two valves with 32 pounds pressure, normally 80-85 pounds of pressure. However, this left Ama with only one eight-inch water line, that along River Road, to supply not only the normal residential and commercial needs but also fire-fighting capability.

Councilman Barry Minnich, who is also fire chief of the Luling Volunteer Fire Department, added arrangements have been made for assistance from Hahnville and Paradis departments in covering the Luling area, as well as neighboring Live Oak Volunteer Fire Department in Waggaman, which is available for assistance in Ama.

“If we get a fire in Ama, everybody’s rolling,” Minnich said. “We’ve got it covered, as best we can.”

The new line to be installed, at an estimated $300,000 cost, will be a polyethylene line with a 20-year lifespan. Required permits are already in from the state Department of Natural Resources and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Bids are expected to be opened early next week. “We hope boring will take a week, then we have to chlorinate the line and test the water through a lab, which will take another week,” said Brou.

The line extends from near the Pier Two canal on U.S. 90 to the rear of Anna Street, where it branches to customers. It also intersects two high-pressure natural gas lines, those of Equiline and Texaco.

“If the need arises, we’ll patch in and run water shuttles,” added Tommy Barreca, president of the St. Charles Firefighters Association. “We’re already set up with mutual aid agreements.”

A connecting water line with Jefferson Parish is also in place, for emergencies only, Minnich said.