Finally, @SWBNewOrleans has treated its customer base with respect and put out a ton of information about their systems ahead of tonight's rain. But it's doubtful most people will see it today, so I will hit the highlights. (1/22)
The @NOLACityCouncil had a meeting scheduled for tomorrow where @SWBNewOrleans was due to present. The meeting was postponed to Monday, but the postponement came late enough that all the slide presentations were uploaded to the Council website: (2/22) cityofno.granicus.com/GeneratedAgend…
Jan 3 • 11 tweets • 6 min read
🧵I can now report the @cityofnola owns dozens of the Archer 1200 vehicle impact barriers. The ones deployed today on Bourbon Street by @nopdnews were pulled from a City-owned storage yard in the 3000 block of Lafitte Ave, on the Lafitte Greenway. (1/n)
Photos taken this morning by local photographer Hunter Holder show the Archer barriers being plucked from the storage yard prior to their deployment. (2/n)
Aug 11, 2024 • 29 tweets • 5 min read
(1/n) The following is a scenario which could explain how both the @swbneworleans east bank and west bank water systems lost pressure simultaneously through a single @entergynola failure on the east bank
(2/n) @SWBNewOrleans is always running 25 Hz power out to their facilities because certain pieces of equipment only work on that frequency. Among them are constant duty drainage pumps which keep canals low in dry weather. The base 25 Hz dry day load is called "house load."
Mar 4, 2024 • 8 tweets • 3 min read
(1/8) Ahead of the rain today and tomorrow, here's a bit of information provided by @swbneworleans: the "one inch first hour, half inch each hour after" drainage rate is a minimum, not maximum.
(2/8) @SWBNewOrleans posted on their new pump dashboard a Dec, 2017 white paper written by BCG (now Ardurra) about the drainage system capacity. Ardurra maintains the utility 's never-made-public drainage model, and has for decades. The paper says the following:
Feb 4, 2024 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
🧵 (1/5) Questions indeed.
Back of the envelope math:
Total nameplate power for all 25 Hz drainage pump motors that could have been running 2/3/24: 32.5 MW
Water intake and distribution pumps that might be running: 3.7 MW
Allowance for other uses at plant: 2 MW
Total: 38.2 MW
(2/5) These numbers are probably overstated. I included every 25 Hz pump at interior stations 1 and 2, but limits on their discharges make such use impossible. Also, based on years of Central Control power logs, load at the plant is usually no higher than 4.5 MW, but I have 5.7.
Jul 29, 2023 • 8 tweets • 3 min read
BREAKING: @swbneworleans will continue dumping sewage to the Mississippi River past its self-imposed deadline of today, due to a second break in the line whose break caused the July 7 sewage diversion. 1/
The pipe originally broke on July 5. When initial efforts to repair it failed, @SWBNewOrleans , to avoid sewage backing up into homes and streets, diverted the flow to the river through a bypass line on July 7. They announced the diversion to the public four days later. 2/
Oct 9, 2022 • 10 tweets • 6 min read
WEFTEC and @SWBNewOrleans did a project like this in 2014 at Conrad Playground in Hollygrove: green infrastructure to address drainage problems. Within three years, the city paved over the entire project because it failed to do what it promised. 1/
The 2014 Conrad Playground project was a way for @SWBNewOrleans to settle fines for S&WB violations found by @LOUISIANA_DEQ dating back 8 years. S&WB paid $5000 in project costs + $2500 in-kind donations as part of a larger $14,000 settlement with LDEQ. edms.deq.louisiana.gov/app/doc/view?d… 2/
Sep 5, 2022 • 13 tweets • 8 min read
With the peak of hurricane season upon New Orleans, it may be worthwhile to examine certain serious weaknesses in the @SWBNewOrleans drainage system. For example, did you know the pump discharge tubes on station 7 at City Park could fall off the building at any time? 1/@SWBNewOrleans drainage pump station (DPS) 7 is on Marconi Blvd and drains a large section of Mid-City and Lakeview. It houses three large pumps (25 Hz pump A: 550 cubic feet per second, or cfs; 25 Hz pump C: 1000 cfs; 60 Hz pump D: 1000 cfs). 2/
Sep 3, 2022 • 21 tweets • 10 min read
Actually, it did. It was in the background of the 2017 floods. One of the two main filters at the @swbneworleans Carrollton Plant - the Sycamore filter - was days from shutting down, which would have cut off the water supply. S&WB didn't tell the public until 9 mos. later. 1/
This was happening right around the August 5, 2017 floods. The sole backwash pump for the @SWBNewOrleans Sycamore water filter, a pump from the 1930's and identified as a problem 2 years before, died. 2/
