Within days of Hurricane Katrina, CDM began emergency restoration efforts in New Orleans that included field visits to damaged water and wastewater treatment, collection, and distribution systems and preliminary engineering recommendations for Jefferson, St. Tammany, and St. Bernard parishes. In the month following the storm, CDM assessed more than 500 pump and lift stations, 70 wastewater treatment plants, and six water treatment facilities, and prepared final reports used by the parishes to request Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) funding.
Throughout Jefferson Parish, CDM assessed hundreds of aboveground electrical panels that were destroyed by high waters and evaluated ways to better protect these structures against future storms. In St. Tammany Parish, one of the hardest hit areas, CDM evaluated approximately 100 private water and wastewater systems that collectively serve the parish. This quick evaluation helped make informed decisions on whether to improve or regionalize the systems. In one of the hardest hit areas of the parish, CDM performed emergency startup repairs on a lift station that supported a civic center housing 700 evacuees, an action that allowed the safe haven to remain open.
St. Bernard Parish—one of the most comprehensively affected parishes—suffered significant water and wastewater infrastructure damage. CDM performed detailed walkthroughs of every facility, room, and process to evaluate the damage and future life-cycle or potential to fail of systems and equipment, helping the parish safely re-initiate systems and prioritize repairs and funding.
Additionally, the parish awarded CDM a $4.7 million contract to design and implement a consolidation plan that would decommission all but one of the seven wastewater treatment facilities, the Munster wastewater treatment plant. The new system will better accommodate long-term population reduction and affords the operation, maintenance, and protection of just one location.