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WBR among parishes asking residents to only drip faucets at night to maintain water pressure
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PORT ALLEN — Officials in multiple parishes asked residents to drip their faucets only at night while temperatures continue to remain below freezing.
West Baton Rouge Parish officials notified residents with multiple emergency alert system messages asking them not to drip their faucets during the day to conserve water and ensure water pressures remain stable across the parish.
WBRZ spoke with West Baton Rouge Parish President Jason Manola about what triggered an emergency alert that hit cell phones across the region Thursday morning.
Manola said an automated telemetry system that monitors water tower levels showed capacity had dropped to between 10 to 15 percent.
"It was a precautionary measure, and also to allow our first responders, our firefighters, in case of any structure fires that we may have to have full capacity water pressure," Manola said.
West Baton Rouge residents received the alerts a little after 9 a.m. One of the messages was very brief, the other was in more detail.
"The brief one was initially set up, it had a 60-character limit, and that was basically for some of the residents who may still have the old flip phones," Manola said.
When cold weather comes, many residents tend to drip water from their faucets to keep their pipes from freezing, or wrap their pipes.
"I wrapped them last year before, and I made sure they were covered completely for this snowstorm," Addis resident Sherman Dickerson said.
West Baton Rouge has a parish-wide water system that relies on water wells throughout the area. Stopping the dripping process allows the parish to maintain its water pressure.
"A lot of our residents are off the ground, you know so pipes are running under homes which are off the ground, which could potentially lead to some frozen pipes," Manola said.
Manola says that since the message was put out, water capacity has increased and all their wells and towers are fully functional.
He also talked about what's next as well.
"Now is that next step where we'll have crews going out, looking for any potential busted water lines that we may have, any backflow preventers that may have cracks in them and things like that."
Iberville Parish residents were asked to do the same on Wednesday. Other parish and town governments asked the same.
If water pressure dips below a certain threshold, contaminants can begin to infiltrate the water supply. If this happens, a boil water advisory may need to be put into place.
St. John the Baptist Parish has already placed its residents under a boil water advisory, asking residents in Reserve, Garyville, Mt. Airy, Edgard Wallace and Pleasure Bend to bring water to a rolling boil out of precaution for one minute. St. John residents are also being asked to conserve water and avoid non-essential water use as much as possible in an effort to replenish water systems from the freeze.
During freezing events, water utility companies ask customers to trip their faucets during sub-freezing temperatures. This is done because flowing water cannot freeze. Frozen pipes can cause bursts and leaks.
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