Is Our Water Safe?

By Chaney Ferguson
The Times of SWLA




Recently residents received a card in the mail informing them of coliforms found in the water. The information card explained the reporting period during the month of May “violated the maximum contaminate level of coliform bacteria.” The regulations are stated in the State and Federal Primary Drinking Water Regulations.

“We can have up to four samples test positive for coliform. Which is not out of the ordinary, but anything over four throws us out of compliance,” said Russell Buckels with the City of Lake Charles Water Division.

As a result of the violation the water division had thirty days to inform customers through a public notice or direct mail outs.

“This time it was unusual because when we took 20 samples in one week 10 came back positive for total coliform. We immediately re-sampled all those sites and upstream and downstream from each site so for the 10 that were positive we picked up 30 plus a house on either side,” said Buckels.

When taking samples upstream and downstream the idea is to figure out if the contamination is localized or spread out.

“It’s an additional check,” said Buckels. “So if there was contamination we may see what direction it is coming from.”

According to Buckels, all the additional samples came back negative.

The water division believes contamination occurred either at sampling out in the field or running them back in to the lab.

“We think that because all of the additional samples came back negative, but since we went over our limit the first time we had to send out a public notice,” said Buckels.

When taking a water sample Buckels says there must be a good lab procedure and sterile sample bags. Samples are not taken when the weather causes drizzling, high humidity or dew because of how the moisture can get into the sample bags.

“When we get back to the lab we are taking that sample and running it through some filter media. There can be contamination there if the glassware isn’t sterilized and lots of other possibilities,” said Buckels.

“When the samples come back positive for coliform additional tests are made to look for more harmful bacteria such as fecal coliform,” said Buckels.

Coliform is considered an indicator organism for more harmful bacteria. It is a natural bacterium in the environment.

“Coliforms are real prevalent in the environment. You have them all over your hands and they are all over my desk,” said Buckels.

Two years ago five coliforms within a month were found in the water and a notice was sent out.
“Other than that I don’t think we’ve ever had a violation like that, but we do find coliform from time to time; it’s not unheard of,” said Buckels. “We normally don’t find that many because we have chlorine in the water.”

According to Buckels most people think that since you have chlorine in the water the water is sterile, but you have organisms that can grow in the water.

“I guess the best example I can give is if you have a gallon of milk and you never open it, it goes bad. That’s because the pasteurization process uses an air range of temperature where most of the organisms grow so they pasteurize it at that temperature, but any organisms that can grow on a lower or higher temperature are still in the milk because they are not considered harmful,” said Buckels.

Those organisms grow even though the milk is never opened because it goes bad. The same thing is true of water. There are organisms out there not harmful to people but they do produce some odor complaints for the water division and coliforms are found from time to time.

“We don’t want our customers to be alarmed because everything was fine. They don’t have to boil the water or do anything. If they have a concern they can give us a call and I can explain it further and give additional information,” said Buckels.

Everyone will soon be receiving the water quality report from the water division which covers last year and states where the city gets its water.

“It is kind of ironic that I have to send out a notice like this and it is coming at the same time as our report for last year,” said Buckels.

The water division is required to test approximately eighty bacteriological samples a month to meet regulations.

If any of the additional samples test positive for harmful bacteria Buckels is required to immediately notify the public through radio and television announcements.

“I know what is going on with the water system, and I let my family drink the water. I wouldn’t do that if I thought something was wrong with it,” said Buckels.

Energizing Downtown With the New City Courthouse

By Chaney Ferguson The Times of SWLA




Downtown Lake Charles has made great strides in drawing in businesses and creating an area people want to spend time enjoying. Lori Marinovich, executive director of the Downtown Development Authority, says building the new city courthouse downtown will only bring in more foot-traffic.

“We wanted to maintain their presence in downtown Lake Charles. Some of the benefits of just having that type of activity downtown is of course that the nature of their business brings people into the downtown area,” said Marinovich.

According to Marinovich, when the city court was originally interested in the Sears Automotive site, city owned property, the DDA helped shepherd the interest in the district.

“We worked specifically with that piece of property and it helped get all the issues to the forefront. We were able to develop a cooperative development agreement which spells out the roles and responsibilities of each party as we move through this development process.”

Marinovich shares that one of the court’s strongest points made in the discussion to build a new courthouse was that many times this is the only time a visitor ever has an experience in court.
“These are usually your minor traffic violations, things like that,” says Marinovich.

According to Marinovich, current courthouse conditions are just not what people would want to put in front of the public.

“It needs some improvements especially if that is the only and the first time someone ever has a court experience. There are also some security issues with the actual environment” Marinovich said.

Recently a new option has become available for the courthouse. The parish acquired new land at 901 Lakeshore Drive. Presently the DDA and the court systems are reviewing all the needs.
Marinovich explained: “We simply asked before we made a commitment to build a whole new structure to look at our judicial needs in a more holistic view and say okay the parish has certain needs. Are they going to need to build a new structure? Can the needs of the city court be accommodated by a structure that may be vacated?”

Marinovich went on to say that they just wanted to have a period of time to explore all of those options and that is why they have the December deadline. “We will use the next several months to work with the parish and city court needs and see what we can determine in a more holistic way,” Marinovich said.

According to Marinovich the court system brings foot traffic into the downtown area.
“It brings interest because people stop and have lunch. They may stop and see the new residential components.”

Marinovich says it helps people have a good experience downtown.

The need for the new city courthouse to be located downtown also serves the local businessmen.
“We have a lot of law offices, engineers, abstracters that have business downtown. Their jobs really relate to a judicial need. So they feed and add additional people into the downtown,” says Marinovich.

The goal of the DDA is to recruit businesses and activities downtown which brings in people. Marinovich believes the courthouse is part of that process.
“It is all about growing the downtown and growing to our capacity.”