Lax chlorine standards likely contributed to brain-eating amoeba in St. Bernard water

The administrator who oversees safe drinking water for Louisiana said St. Bernard Parish’s water supply has not been under any recent state enforcement orders prompted by low chlorine levels, because the parish’s water has tested positive for traceable amounts of disinfectants over the last several years.

Those tests, however, did not seek a deadly brain-eating amoeba found at four sites in St. Bernard this month, which killed a 28-year-old man in Arabi in 2011 and a 4-year-old boy in Violet last month. And officials said they found no chlorine at all at four sites earlier this month that tested positive for the amoeba, Naegleria fowleri.

If sites in the parish water supply test positive for any chlorine levels at all – anything above zero chlorine in the water – then the would not come under state or federal enforcement, according to Jake Causey, the state Department of Health and Hospitals administrator who oversees the state’s safe drinking water.

Monthly testing in St. Bernard’s water had always detected at least some minimal chlorine levels in recent years, according to DHH and parish documents. But chlorine at certain sites at times dip below 0.5 mg/L, with many sites in Arabi, Violet and Yscloskey regularly hovering right around that dangerous threshold.

More at http://www.nola.com/health/index.ssf/2013/09/st_bernard_brain-eating_amoeba.html#incart_river_default .