re: Saltwater Intrusion Preparation

Mr Wallace. Everything is going to be OK. I’m 65 years old and have seen this happen before. MSM has jumped on this event creating fear.

Your appliances will be fine.

That would require thinking and work. Don’t think for a moment Nola officials have enough brain cells for either.

Your plumber is in with the appliance stores. They’re setting you up to sell you all new appliances you don’t need.

Copper, stainless steel, brass and PEX should be fine with saltwater contact. It's the minor components and fittings in appliances made of die cast parts (zinc) that will probably be a problem under a saltwater environment (of course depending on the length of exposure).

I however don't believe this will be an issue. Once the water plants see saltwater intrusion they will shut things down and the city will never see saltwater in the distribution system to get to the homeowners.

Considering the other chemicals/sewage that is in Mississippi River water salt maybe an improvement.

The salt may just kill the parasites.

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have seen this happen before. MSM has jumped on this event creating fear.

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Yes, it happened a year ago. It happens regularly. It happened a decade ago.

The USACE regularly builds a saltwater sill in the river to stop the wedge.

In the past, the wedge has gone nearly up to the “New” Bridge in Baton Rouge.

I’m sure they’re putting climate change at the forefront of this hysteria, but we mustn’t forget that the river has been dredged deeper in recent years to account for larger ships.

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He thinks this is going to be a big homeowner's insurance claim event.

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Well some people would have to lose appliance in their homes just to meet a deductible.

Average Prices (Some can be more or less depending on how advanced your appliances are)
Washer Dryer = 1,500
Water Heater = 500
Dishwasher = 500
Fridge with Ice and Water = 1,500

That is about 4k in appliances, some deductibles are higher than that to get the premiums under at reasonable rates. At least it is not a storm deductible at 5% of the value of the policy where it could be over 10k.

Ice makers will be screwed up tasting for a while so will fridge water dispensers.

Not sure about water heaters. Washers should be fine.

Cant speak to the problem in New Orleans or in Louisiana but I can speak to a similar situation in New Mexico. Nealy all surface water in New Mexico is brackish by any measure. The Pecos River is notably salty in places and any boat trailers used to launch boats south or are around Roswell will rust in a couple of years time like a galvanized / painted trailer used on the coast somewhere. It is so salty that striped bass thrived in the river shortly after the first stockings in SC and redfish were stocked in a reservoir on the NM/Texas state line througout the 1960s and there was a sizable fishing community for stripers and redfish on that lake through the mid 1970s. As salty as the Pecos is I never knew anyone who had any significant issues with their plumbing systems and there was nothing done at any water treatment plant to lower the saline content or protect the plant equipment that was not done in areas where the salinity was much lower.