New Orleans sits below sea level, surrounded by water — Lake Pontchartrain to the north, the Mississippi River curving through the city, and the Gulf of Mexico just downstream. Water is the city’s defining feature, its greatest threat, and the source of some of its most persistent infrastructure failures.
Nearly two decades after Hurricane Katrina exposed the catastrophic consequences of infrastructure neglect, the city’s drinking water and drainage systems remain in crisis. The Sewerage and Water Board of New Orleans (SWBNO) — the agency responsible for drinking water, sewage, and drainage — faces an estimated $5 billion infrastructure backlog and a crisis of public trust.
The System
New Orleans draws its drinking water from the Mississippi River, treating it at the Carrollton Water Treatment Plant — one of the oldest continuously operating water treatment facilities in the country, dating to 1909. The plant can process up to 135 million gallons per day.
The treatment process is straightforward: coagulation, sedimentation, filtration, and disinfection with chloramine. The treated water meets all federal drinking water standards at the point of treatment. The problem isn’t what happens at the plant — it’s what happens after the water leaves.
The Pipe Problem
New Orleans’ water distribution system includes approximately 1,600 miles of water mains, many of which are 80 to 100+ years old. Some pipes date to the early 1900s. The system is deteriorating faster than it can be repaired, and the consequences are visible — literally.
Water main breaks are a near-daily occurrence in New Orleans. In a typical year, SWBNO responds to over 100 major breaks and thousands of smaller leaks. The breaks cause:
- Boil water advisories — pressure drops from main breaks can allow contaminants to enter the system, triggering citywide or zone-specific boil advisories
- Road damage — breaks often crater streets and sidewalks, adding to the city’s already notorious road repair backlog
- Water loss — SWBNO loses an estimated 40-50% of treated water to leaks before it reaches customers. That’s nearly half the water the Carrollton plant treats, lost underground.
- Service disruptions — breaks can leave neighborhoods without water for hours or days
The causes are a combination of age, soil conditions (New Orleans’ soft, shifting soils are hard on underground pipes), and deferred maintenance driven by chronic underfunding.
Lead Service Lines
Like many cities with infrastructure dating to the early 20th century, New Orleans has a significant number of lead service lines — the pipes connecting water mains to individual homes. Estimates suggest tens of thousands of lead service lines remain in the city, though the exact number is still being determined through the inventory required by the EPA’s Lead and Copper Rule Revisions.
SWBNO adds orthophosphate to treated water as a corrosion inhibitor, which builds a protective coating inside lead pipes and reduces lead leaching. When the treatment is applied consistently and water chemistry is stable, this approach keeps lead levels below the federal action level at most sampling points.
But the protection isn’t foolproof:
- Water main breaks and repairs can disrupt the protective coating, temporarily increasing lead levels in nearby homes
- Homes that have been vacant may have degraded protective coatings in their service lines
- Individual homes can test above the system-wide average, especially in the oldest neighborhoods
The EPA’s new Lead and Copper Rule Revisions require New Orleans to inventory all service lines and develop a plan to replace every lead line within 10 years. For a city already struggling to maintain its existing infrastructure, this is a massive additional burden.
Post-Katrina: The Long Recovery
Hurricane Katrina in August 2005 devastated New Orleans’ water infrastructure. The storm surge and flooding:
- Contaminated the entire drinking water system — floodwater inundated pipes, wells, and facilities
- Damaged treatment equipment at the Carrollton plant and pumping stations
- Destroyed drainage pumps that protect the below-sea-level city from flooding
- Displaced the workforce that operates and maintains the system
The post-Katrina recovery brought federal investment — FEMA funds, Army Corps of Engineers projects, and congressional appropriations. But much of that investment went to the hurricane protection system (levees, floodwalls, pumping stations) rather than the drinking water distribution system.
The result: New Orleans got better flood protection but its pipes kept aging.
The Turbine Problem
SWBNO operates its own power generation system to run the massive drainage pumps that keep New Orleans from flooding during rainstorms. The system includes century-old turbines at the Carrollton plant that are critical to powering the city’s 120+ drainage pumping stations.
These turbines have failed repeatedly, sometimes during storms — the worst possible time. A 2017 turbine failure during heavy rain contributed to widespread street flooding. The incident became a political crisis, exposing how fragile the city’s flood protection was despite billions in post-Katrina investment.
SWBNO has since invested in turbine repairs and backup power, but the underlying infrastructure remains old and failure-prone.
Water Quality: What the Data Shows
New Orleans’ treated water meets federal standards, but residents face several quality concerns:
- Disinfection byproducts: Chloramine treatment of Mississippi River water (which carries significant organic matter from upstream agricultural runoff) produces haloacetic acids and trihalomethanes. SWBNO monitors these and reports compliance, but levels in some distribution zones approach regulatory limits.
- Taste and odor: The Mississippi River source water picks up compounds from upstream agricultural and industrial activity. While treatment addresses safety, some residents report taste and odor issues, particularly in warmer months when algae blooms affect the river.
- Turbidity after breaks: Water main breaks and repairs can cause temporary discoloration and turbidity as sediment is disturbed in old pipes.
What New Orleans Residents Should Know
- Your treated water meets federal standards. Despite infrastructure challenges, the water leaving the Carrollton plant is safe. The risks emerge in the aging distribution system.
- Take boil advisories seriously. They happen frequently in New Orleans, and they’re issued because pressure drops create real contamination risks.
- If your home was built before 1986, you likely have a lead service line. Run your tap for 30 seconds to 2 minutes before drinking or cooking, especially in the morning.
- NSF-certified water filters can provide extra protection — carbon filters for disinfection byproducts and taste, NSF/ANSI 53 filters for lead removal.
- After any flooding event, do not use tap water until the boil advisory is lifted. If you have a private well (rare in Orleans Parish but more common in surrounding parishes), have it tested after any flood.
- Report water main breaks to SWBNO immediately — the faster a break is addressed, the less risk of contamination.
If you’re concerned about lead, disinfection byproducts, or other contaminants in your New Orleans drinking water, a certified water treatment professional can test your water and recommend appropriate filtration or treatment solutions.