NOTP - Amoeba Present, Chlorine Absent In LA Drinking Water; Two Parish Employees Face Arrest

[hatrack]

Two employees of the St. John the Baptist Parish Utilities Department were indicted Monday on charges of lying and falsifying data about a public water system infected with a brain-eating amoeba. They were given 24 hours to surrender for arrest. Kevin Branch, 54, of LaPlace and Danielle Roussel, 43, of Paulina were supposed to collect water samples daily at the Lions treatment plant in Reserve and at the other end of the system in Mount Airy, to ensure the water met the state minimum of 0.5 milligrams of chlorine per liter of water. They completed testing logs that were sent to the state Department of Health and Hospitals.

But the global positioning systems on their parish vehicles showed they were not near the sampling sites on several of the dates and times they indicated on the logs, according to the indictment, handed up by a parish grand jury in Edgard. It charged them with malfeasance in office and filing false public records between Aug. 1 and Aug. 27.

The later date is when state health officials announced the presence of the potentially deadly Naegleria fowleri amoeba in the Lions system, which serves almost 13,000 residents in Reserve, Garyville, Mount Airy and a small part of LaPlace, and issued an emergency order for increased chlorination. Their conclusion was based on their own water samples, taken Aug. 12.

Discovery of the amoeba rattled St. John Parish, with residents and Parish Council members repeatedly demanding answers from Parish President Natalie Robottom's administration. Robottom and state health officials said the water was safe for drinking and bathing, for the amoeba poses a health threat only if contaminated water were to enter the nasal cavity.

EDIT

http://www.nola.com/crime/index.ssf/2014/10/indictment_from_brain-eating_a.html#incart_river

[Demit]

1. Oh brother.

You've got two brainiacs who didn't realize their vehicle had GPS, and a mayor who says Hey, drinking the water & bathing in it presents no possibility that you might get water up your nose.