Editor's note: As of Thurs., Oct. 8, the "boil-water advisory" has been lifted in Tallulah.
Tallulah water customers experienced another complete water outage on Sunday, October 4, 2020. According to City officials, one of three high service pumps at the water plant failed. Those officials say that typically in this situation, the other two pumps would automatically kick in. However, communication errors between plant components (i.e. components not “talking” to each other electronically) occurred and the other two high service pumps did not come on. Additionally, city officials say that other communication errors lead to false water level readings in some of the tanks.
Customers were without water for much of the day before service was re-established.
Due to the outage and the loss of pressure, Mayor Charles Finlayson said that the City of Tallulah is mandated by the State of Louisiana to issue a boil advisory.
“Beginning on Sunday, we immediately issued a boil advisory once water service stopped to our customers,” he said. “We are mandated by the state to issue boil advisories anytime the pressure in the elevated tank drops below a certain pressure level. Luckily, we were able to get water re-established relatively quickly. I understand the frustrations of our customers who are paying for this service. It’s no secret that we continue to have problems with our water plant and we are going to have to make some tough decisions on how we go forward.”
Finlayson said that he met with representatives from the Governor’s Office, Louisiana Department of Health, United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and Louisiana Rural Water Association (LRWA) several days before this latest water outage. “Representative Francis Thompson helped facilitate the meeting with all of the entities. Basically, Tallulah is in a position where we have to make a long term decision about our water plant. I plan on discussing this with the Council at the meeting on Thursday, October 8, 2020.”
The Tallulah City Council voted in 2019 to submit an application to USDA for funding for the water plant. “We will be discussing that vote and how we will move forward at the next meeting,” Finlayson said. The Tallulah Council will meet again on October 8, 2020 at 5:30 pm at Tallulah City Hall.
Finlayson said that the City will continue under the boil advisory until samples are sent to and cleared by the State.
