Hundreds flood DHH meeting with water concerns

State and local officials gathered Wednesday to discuss Sterlington’s water situation after the Department of Health and Hospitals reported Tuesday the presence of what’s commonly known as the brain-eating amoeba in Sterlington’s water.

Tuesday DHH confirmed the presence of the Naegleria fowleri amoeba in the North Monroe Water System, which serves the town of Sterlington, at the 701 Guthrie Road sampling site.

The North Monroe Water System serves 8,400 residents who live in Sterlington and the surrounding area on U.S. 165 North, including residential neighborhoods outside of Sterlington like Frenchman’s Bend.

Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals Secretary Kathy Kliebert traveled to Sterlington to meet with officials and more than 300 residents about their concerns.

She said Greater Ouachita Water Co. has cooperated with DHH to address the problem. The North Monroe Water System is owned by Greater Ouachita Water Co.

State Medical Officer Dr. Jimmy Guidry said there have been few cases of the brain-eating amoeba, but there’s a 95 percent chance of death if one is infected.

“The amoeba has been here all our lives. It is not new to our environment. You can’t prove where it came into the system, but it is in the system and it will take 60 days of burning it (through a chlorine burn) to clean out the system and make sure it’s gone,” Guidry said. “Our job is to try to find it, do something about it and not alarm people.”

He said it’s not often the amoeba will make its way to the human brain, but if it does, few will survive.

This is the fourth water system in Louisiana to have the amoeba.

He advised residents there will be noticeable changes in their water during this 60-day chlorine burn. After that the state will continue to monitor and test the water supply.

DHH officials said the water is safe to drink, but residents should avoid getting the water in their noses.

Guidry advised residents the main risk of getting the amoeba is through the nose. He said all other forms of human consumption is safe.

DHH officials took questions from residents that they submitted in writing before the meeting.

They asked the impact it would have on pets, why the public was not notified immediately, and wanted concerns addressed from people who have used the water recently.

Some residents claimed the water company will make even more money off this situation as people will be required to flush their water before each person uses it. Others said Greater Ouachita Co. notoriously is late in notifying customers about issues they’ve found within the system.

“We found out about this yesterday and we made sure our tests were accurate. We shared it with the water system and shared what we could through electronic media. I think we’ve done everything we can to make it quick. We are telling people throughout Louisiana not to get water up their nose whether they have the amoeba or not. I don’t know how we could have done it faster because it takes a while to get the test results,” Guildry said. “

He said symptoms include vomiting, stiff neck, severe headache, fever, confusion, seizures and hallucinations and within 12 days, “you are dead.”

He said pets are not likely to be impacted, but there is no guarantee they won’t be affected.

Sterlington Mayor Vern Breland said the town is moving forward with building its $9 million water treatment plant in order to provide these residents water. He expects by 2017 it will be operational. It will service one million gallons per day.

Ouachita Parish Schools Superintendent Don Coker said the system shut down the water fountains at Sterlington Elementary, Sterlington Middle and Sterlington High schools Wednesday morning.

Coker said 4,000 bottles of drinking water were stocked at the three schools.

Kliebert said there have been no reports of illness so far.

The most common occurrence of water going that far up the nose is through the use of a neti pot, which is used for irrigating sinuses.

Two of the three deaths in Louisiana since 2011 from the amoeba were caused by the use of neti pots. The other death was caused when a child inhaled water while playing on a slip and slide water toy.

Kliebert insisted the water is safe to drink and would drink it herself. She said people with swimming pools should make sure they are well chlorinated.

Greater Ouachita owner Tommy Sparks said a full free chlorine burn would be conducted to kill any amoeba. The state has directed the chlorine burn to last 60 days.

Sparks said he isn’t sure how the system was contaminated, but he suspects it could be from a home where a sprinkler system that pulls water from Bayou DeSiard is cross connected to the home’s drinking water system.

The amoeba occurs naturally in fresh water lakes and bayous, especially during hot weather.

Greater Ouachita’s North Monroe Water System buys its water from the city of Monroe, but the city, state and Sparks said the city of Monroe’s water was clear when it was delivered through two pipes at a meter near St. Francis North Hospital.

Greater Ouachita takes delivery from that meter and pumps it to two elevated storage tanks — one on Horseshoe Lake Road and the other near Parrot’s Beak subdivision — before pumping it north toward Sterlington.

Monroe Water Systems Manager Sean Benton said DHH confirmed all water sample locations within the city of Monroe tested negative for the brain-eating amoeba.

DHH officials also confirmed water sample tests show that entry points into bulk water customers met all regulatory standards. Bulk water customers are those outside water companies that purchase water from the City of Monroe and resale them to customers in the parish. This means that all City of Monroe and DHH water tests confirm that water in our system was clean and safe when the water entered the outside system.