By ROBIN SHANNON

L’Observateur

EDGARD – St. John acting Parish President Pat McTopy said Tuesday that tap water flowing through LaPlace is finally in compliance with strict standards from state health officials.

A series of tests performed last month showed that the parish’s $3.3 million Nano Filtration system is eliminating water contaminants at a rate that far exceeds expectations from the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals and the Environmental Protection Agency.

“It’s safe,” McTopy said. “It meets all expectations and it is refreshing.”

In a brief report from water testing consultant Michael Curtis of Curtis Environmental Services, the council was told that concentration levels of trihalomethanes and haloacetic acids have both dropped significantly below their respective federally mandated thresholds during the past year.

“In our first sample in February of 2010, trihalomethanes dropped to 62 parts per billion,” Curtis said. “Which is well below the 80 ppb standard. Haloacetic acid registered at 34 ppb, with a federal threshold of 60 ppb. The water is safe.”

In other action from Tuesday, the council authorized administration to open the bid process on three major public improvement projects in the Reserve and LaPlace areas.

The projects, which include a public gym at Regala Park, repairs to about 350 sewer hole covers and rehabilitation of five parish water towers throughout LaPlace and Reserve, are all covered by money obtained through revenue bonds acquired in 2009 and 2010.

The council also approved a resolution authorizing an agreement with the Pontchartrain Levee District to lower the parish’s costs of an east bank hurricane protection levee.

The agreement reduces the parish’s share of the project’s non-federal match from 22.5 to 20 percent. The levee district and the state would each be responsible for 40 percent of the local match under the plan.