Water barges and salt-filtering reverse osmosis units will not be enough to prevent saltwater from contaminating New Orleans’ largest water facility, officials said at city council meeting on Wednesday. Instead, a pipeline will be needed to deliver freshwater from upstream — not just for New Orleans, but likely for neighboring Jefferson Parish, too.
It would be a significant and pricey escalation in the region’s response to the saltwater wedge inching its way up the Mississippi River and contaminating drinking water for thousands of people.
“Barring the rain that’s probably not going to happen … the tactic or strategy we’re taking right now is drawing water further upriver,” Collin Arnold, director of homeland security and emergency preparedness for the city of New Orleans, told New Orleans City Council members.
Midwest water to ocean water: ope, just gonna squeeze past ya here.
It’s almost as if humans should vacate parts of Earth where it would take a monumental amount of resources to mold the environment just to survive.
New Orleans should be abandoned for many reasons. This is just the latest. Ideally the government would have resettled people after Katrina and declared everywhere that flooded to be unbuildable.
The Mississippi is drying up. This won’t help.
