Boil water advisory for North Lafourche

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Residents in parts of northern Lafourche Parish are under boil water advisory after a mainline break caused a drop in water pressure.


The Lafourche Parish Water District issued the advisory for all customers between Tiger Drive in Thibodaux and the Assumption Parish line. The advisory will be in effect until rescinded by the district.

The water district advises customers to boil water for one full minute before consuming it or using it to make ice, brush teeth or prepare food. The minute begins once the water is at a roiling boil.

Dirk Barrios, general manager of Lafourche Parish Water District No.1, said the drop in pressure resulted from a ruptured pipe.


“The line just ruptured. It probably had some kind of surge in the line, or a weakness in the line, and basically the whole joint of pipe was replaced,” he said.

The water district shut down the pipe on La. Highway 1 to make repairs, but the rest of the line was overwhelmed by the amount of water used by customers, according to Barrios.

“We had isolated it by itself. It wouldn’t have been as big an area, and the rest of it was being fed by one line and that one line couldn’t keep up,” he said.


Once the pressure drops below 15 psi, the parish has to issue a boil water advisory. Barrios said that low pressure means something from the outside could potentially infiltrate the system and contaminate the water, so the advisory is a precaution until the pressure is higher than 15 again.

“It’s just a precautionary thing that everybody has to do when something like this happens,” he said.

According to Barrios, the leak has been repaired and the water district is flushing out the lines. Unless something changes, the water district will be taking samples later today to send to the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals for testing, which usually takes about 18 hours. If all the tests come back with good results, the district will lift the advisory.


“We’re going to take samples today, hopefully we get results tomorrow, because all the sites in the area have to be tested,” Barrios said. “So if they all come back good then we’ll lift the boil water advisory. If they don’t we’re going to have to re-test again tomorrow.” • 

Boil water advisoryFile