Increased education about BR water urged

There is room for improvement when it comes to what some East Baton Rouge Parish residents know about the location and condition of the drinking water they use every day, according to a survey done through the State Department of Natural Resources.

The phone survey of 300 registered voters in the parish on Dec. 3 and Dec. 4 found that 76 percent of the survey takers didn’t know of any serious threats to the groundwater resources that serve as Baton Rouge’s drinking supply.

When asked, “Are you aware of any serious threats to Baton Rouge’s groundwater resources,” 76 percent of the people replied “No,” 22 percent of the people replied “Yes,” and 1 percent of the people didn’t know or refused to answer the question.

In reality, salt water intrusion into the drinking water supply has been a recognized concern in the parish since the mid-1970s.

When asked, “In your opinion, which potential threat would be most serious? Industrial pollution or contamination, saltwater intrusion, which will lead to a decline in quality, overuse, which will lead to a decline in availability of don’t know/refused,” 62 percent thought it would be industrial pollution and 17 percent thought it would be saltwater intrusion.

Matthew Reonas, education and marketing representative with DNR, said pollution is probably the least potential threat to the groundwater serving the Baton Rouge area.

“All that is good for us to build an awareness program,” Reonas said.

He said the purpose of the survey was to get an idea of what people know about the Southern Hills Aquifer, which supplies the drinking water and water for many industrial uses in the parish.

Reonas is in charge of developing a “Water-Wise in BR” campaign to do public education about the groundwater resources. The survey will provide an idea of what work needs to be done.

Surprisingly, a majority of people knew that drinking water in the parish comes from groundwater sources, which is better than was expected, Reonas said.

When asked, “To the best of your knowledge, does the water found in most Baton Rouge homes and businesses originate from the: a below ground aquifer or “groundwater,” a lake or reservoir system, the Mississippi River, collected rainwater, don’t know/refused to respond,” 51.9 percent of the respondents said it came from groundwater.

About 8 percent of the respondents said it came from a lake or reservoir system, and 7 percent said the water came from the Mississippi River. About 30 percent didn’t know or refused to answer the question, according to the survey.

“There’s a lot of room for growth on awareness,” he said.

In addition, the survey revealed through some analysis that in general younger people under 30 years old were less knowledgeable about the groundwater system than older participants, Reonas said.

Part of the public education program being developed by Reonas will involve a free teacher workshop on Feb. 1 in Baton Rouge for middle school and high school teachers on a curriculum to teach students about the aquifer. More information about that is available through Reonas at 342-1496 or [e-mail].

The survey was done by Magellan Strategies BR and had a margin of error of plus or minus 5.6 percent.

Comments

1) Comment by wadep66 - 01/03/2013

Surface water isn't that difficult to clean. Major solids removed through clarifiers, sand filters and carbon beds remove bacteria and chlorination kills bacteria. Standards for surface treated water and water in public systems has more stringent standards than the bottled water you are drinking. Do some research. You might be surprised.

2) Comment by old yat - 01/03/2013

Hey Wadep66: Thanks for pointing out my error,I apologize to Dow for my mistake. Also keep on drinking that river water,I am sure the EPA,DEQ,and the SDNR know more about the water quality than I do.However,I drink bottled water or clean well water if I have a choice.You can drink the river water, that is your choice.Can you tell me how Dow "makes its own water"? from the sludge that run downs the river that every village,town and city in the center of this country uses as their cesspool.I'll drink to that,then again maybe I'll pass!!!!God Bless&Happy New Year

3) Comment by wadep66 - 01/02/2013

Hey old yat and the rest of you: Dow pulls all of its water from the Mississippi and even makes its own drinking water. Not one drop comes from the BR water supply. Drinking water from the MS is perfectly fine to drink and ours meets or exceeds all EPA requirements. I drink it daily.

4) Comment by mj6338 - 01/02/2013

RE: Comment by eckswhyzee: The gripe by industry is that with river water they would have to continually treat all (river)water for dissolved solids that would plate out on the heat exchange areas in their boilers and cooling towers rendering this equipment much less efficient and driving up their energy consumption bill. This water is simply used as a heat sink then pumped into the river.

5) Comment by eckswhyzee - 01/02/2013

I agree industry along the MS River should pull their water from the river, but you can expect them to cry foul b/c they would have to pay for the pumps/pipelines needed to do so. The permitting process with the Corps of Engineers to allow levee pipeline crossings would also take forever, but no better time than the present.....start the process NOW!

6) Comment by old yat - 01/02/2013

Folks in B.R. need to wake up,having lived in New Orleans most of my life.we had no choice when it came to our water supply.It was bad enough we had to bathe in it,drinking it and cooking with it was out of the question.When I moved to B.R. after Katrina it was a treat to be able to drink a glass of tap water!! Now I hear that the quality of the water here is in question. Why is it industry in the area can not use river water instead of our drinking water.Why is it that the city/parish government has allowed this practice to continue for so long?Do they honestly think that our clean water supply will last forever?I understand that Exxon,Dow and others are big tax payers to the city/parish coffer,however it is a crime to use fresh,clean drinking water the way that they do!! Let us see if our newly elected mayor and council will address this issue before we all have to start using bottled water on a daily basis. If industry can dump their waste water in the river it seems to me that they can use that same water to run their plants!!! God Bless&Happy New Year

7) Comment by gumbo33 - 01/02/2013

It is an absolute travesty that industry uses our clean drinking water to for it's purposes. Cleaning wood chips off and what-not...Industry should be legally required to pull their water from the Mississippi River so our future generations don't have to.

8) Comment by phil - 01/02/2013

I think Stephen makes a valid point in his comment and I do want to learn more but not just from leaders of industry who have plenty of money to "educate" the public. One thing I have recently read is that industries are basically sucking the aquifer dry, and that is one reason salt water is taking the place of the clean potable water we can drink. Many of those industries could possibly use river water instead of pumping from the aquifer. That is the study that I want to hear more about.

9) Comment by Stephen - 01/02/2013

Next DNR should tell us about how industrial users go through millions of gallons of drinkable water in order to keep their costs down. It is using a valuable natural resource in a terribly wasteful and irresponsible manner. The government official here seems intent on sending the message that industry is not a threat to our water supply. Wrong!This is a deception. Remember this is the seem bunch (DNR) that lied about not knowing what was going on over in Bayou Corne at the imploding salt dome. DNR is dangerous to our health. I do not know who cooked up this public relations campaign, but the Advocate should do some journalism before printing a press release.