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Opelousas officials outline water-meter replacement and well rehabilitation plans
Summary
Public works and the city engineer reported ongoing meter replacement, leak repairs and water-well rehabilitation tied to LDH loans; billing compatibility issues are being worked on and billing is expected to be caught up within two weeks, city IT staff said.
Public works and engineering staff told the Opelousas City Council in June that meter replacement and water-system rehabilitation are ongoing and will continue into the coming months, and that some projects depend on state approvals and loans.
Public Works Director Shannon Vanwright said the department continues to repair leaks with contractor help and that a long-running leak on Montreal Street is in the final stages. He said the city is still locating many meters and replacing them as they are found: "it's gonna be an ongoing process," he said, and added that some meter locations are complicated by abandoned properties.
Council members asked about specific complaints. Vanwright said crews had checked a reported leak at 241 Willis Drive and that the department is investigating additional reports on Orchard Street. Vanwright also confirmed the city does not yet consider the meter-replacement program finished.
City Engineer William Joe briefed the council on larger projects. He said design work for the water treatment plant is scheduled to be completed and submitted to the Louisiana Department of Health by the end of the month; approval and loan closing through LDH and the Water Sector program are required before certain water-main, service-line and storage-tank projects proceed. Joe said one of the Mid-South wells is out of service and that the city is repairing wells sequentially so system pressure is maintained.
Council members pressed for production figures; the engineer said the city's production capacity has fallen from roughly "1.2 [million gallons]" to "maybe 600 to 700,000 gallons a day" while a well is offline, an approximate figure he provided in the meeting.
Billing and meter data also drew questions. IT consultant Chip Carpenter told the council the billing system will be caught up in about two weeks: "where we fell behind in billing, we're gonna be caught up in about 2 weeks," he said, adding that cycles 3 and 4 would be mailed in the current week and cycles 1 and 2 the following week.
No formal actions were taken beyond accepting the monthly reports; council members asked staff to provide follow-up details on meter counts, individual leak responses and a timeline for water-treatment design and LDH approvals.
