"Thanks to a changing climate and a deeper navigation channel in the Mississippi River, the saltwater intrusion that has threatened New Orleans area drinking water supplies this year is expected to become more frequent.
The scale of the crisis has sparked calls for a permanent solution. While there is no shortage of ideas, they all come with a huge price and no certainty about who will pay for them.
One favored plan would involve redesigning and rebuilding plants serving New Orleans and Jefferson Parish to allow them to remove salt from river water, projects that could cost hundreds of millions of dollars, parish officials say.
Ghassan Korban, executive director of the Sewerage & Water Board of New Orleans, said dealing with the saltwater threat is being added to proposals already being considered to upgrade the city’s outdated Carrollton and Algiers water treatment plants to be able to remove other toxic substances, including lead, copper and multiple varieties of PFAS “forever chemicals.”"
Mark Schleifstein reports for the New Orleans Times-Picayune October 30, 2023.
Advertisement 
