Erath looks for new water source

ERATH - Monday night the Erath Aldermen met in the Erath Municipal Complex for its monthly meeting. Among the topics discussed was the renewal of the Intergovernmental agreement with the Vermilion Parish Police Jury to perform routine maintenance for 2009, and the examination of new sources of water for the City.

Spokesperson Todd Vincent, vice president of Sellers and Associates, addressed the council to discuss possible sources of water for the City to use in the event of a large scale fire. The recent fire that occurred at Shoot’s Lounge, located directly adjacent to the Erath Municipal Complex, used 300,000 gallons of the town’s total 458,000 gallons of water that is housed in the two ground storage tanks and one, 200,000-gallon elevated tank that the town currently utilizes.

Vincent said the current water system is able to produce an additional 45,000 gallons of water per hour. He presented the possibility that if the fire were to move on to other buildings in the complex such as the library or City Hall, there would have been the possibility of a water shortage.

Erath Mayor George Dupuis and the aldermen discussed several possible solutions to the town’s water problems.

“I think on that fire we put 300,000 gallons of water on the fire in approximately four hours,” Dupuis said. “If we’d had fought the fire for another four hours, let’s say, if th is building would’ve caught fire, or the building next door would’ve caught fire, we, most probably, would have run out of water. Am I correct?” Dupuis asked.

Vincent said, assuming the plant would continue to produce water during the event of a fire, it should continue to produce 45,000 gallons of water per hour. In a four-hour fire, that would equal approximately 180,000 gallons of water, only a portion of the 300,000 gallons needed to contain the Shoot’s fire. Vincent reassured this is only the amount produced and not the amount stored, and Dupuis reiterated that in the case of a large scale fire, lasting eight to 10 hours, the amount of water produced or stored may be inadequate.

“There is potential for City Hall to catch on fire, or the library, to have a fire that we possibly could run out of water,” Dupuis stated. He explained that he and Mayor Pro-Tem Donald Menard were discussing the possibility of entering an agreement with the Magnolia Plantation Water System in order to utilize their water system in the event of an emergency. The council also discussed the possibility of asking the owners of the vacant Texaco station for the same privileges. The addition of another water storage tank is also a consideration, as well as placing more hydrants throughout the City.

Dupuis stated “none of the lines in Vermilion Parish are built for fire protection,” and stated that this is going to have to be evaluated and brought back to the council, especially with the addition of a new school in the area, which will also need access to fire protection water. The aldermen added that, as they have in past years, as a last resort they will have to get water from the nearest canal using a dead leg, the closest being the Bayou Tigre.

James Landry, systems manager for the Magnolia Plantation Water System, said he has not heard anything about the town’s request to tie into their system, but said there was some discussion from the town to try something similar about three years ago, but it just never materialized.

Landry said the Magnolia Plantation Water System Board of Directors is scheduled to meet Tuesday night and the proposal may be re-introduced then.

In other news the aldermen said that they are currently taking bids for the cleanup at Shoot’s Lounge and it is still undecided what will happen to the property afterward. Alderman John LeBlanc thanked the Erath Fire Department and all of the responding fire departments for containing the fire and Alderman Robert Domingues thanked them for putting the fire out before it was able to spread to other buildings in the complex.

Erath Police Chief Gerald Hebert announced that he received a $1,778 grant to pay for two new Dell desktop computers for use in the department.