Matt McBride @mcbride-matt.bsky.social · 08/10/2026Are you sure you don't have a leak in one of your outlets? 020
Matt McBride @mcbride-matt.bsky.social · 04/10/2026One of the four main pumps at Drainage Pumping Station 13, which serves Algiers, has been out of service for a long, long time. Another is "emergency use only," which is SWBNO-ese for "it's likely to fail if you run it." The remaining 3 pumps are minor. So the station is barely at 50% capacity. 162
Matt McBride @mcbride-matt.bsky.social · 12/09/2026Remember: privatization of SWBNO requires passage of the idea in a public vote. Also remember: about a third of SWBNO - ops, maint, and capital spending management of both sewage treatment plants - is already privatized to Veolia via insanely generous contracts. www.legis.la.gov/Legis/Law.as...legis.la.gov Louisiana Laws - Louisiana State Legislature 001
Matt McBride @mcbride-matt.bsky.social · 05/09/2026Ammonia seems likely. It's used in refrigeration. Or it be some other refrigerant. 140
Matt McBride @mcbride-matt.bsky.social · 30/08/2026The ur-text of post-Katrina recovery. youtu.be/UOGlLehx7sg?...youtu.beWhere Y'at, New Orleans?YouTube video by endlessjoe 023
Matt McBride @mcbride-matt.bsky.social · 29/08/20265 days ago, SWBNO published an explainer about the 8/8/26 Algiers boil water advisory. They're scared to say it was the Corps of Engineers and their contractor Hard Rock Construction that hit the water line. They refer to them as "a contractor performing work in the area for a different agency." 083
Matt McBride @mcbride-matt.bsky.social · 28/07/2026They were less common before 2017, when the threshold pressure in Louisiana was raised from 15 psi to 20 psi. 130
Matt McBride @mcbride-matt.bsky.social · 28/07/2026Hydrants are the responsibility of S&WB. They issue hydrant meter permits. 010
Matt McBride @mcbride-matt.bsky.social · 28/07/2026S&WB has a hydrant meter page, with an application, installation instructions, and other information. The fines for hooking up to a hydrant without a hydrant meter are $1000 per instance. www.swbno.org/CustomerServ...swbno.orgHydrant Meters - Sewerage & Water Board of New Orleans 010
Matt McBride @mcbride-matt.bsky.social · 28/07/2026Is there a hydrant meter hooked up at the hydrant? They are required to use one, for billing and safety of the water supply, to prevent backflow back into the drinking water. If there's no hydrant meter, they are just stealing water and putting everyone's water at risk if there's a pressure drop. 100
Matt McBride @mcbride-matt.bsky.social · 23/07/2026Their position on electronic data is in contrast to the City of New Orleans. The city has produced electronically held data in readable formats repeatedly without objection. Hopefully this SWBNO intransigence can be fixed by @nolacitycouncil.bsky.social @jpmorrell.bsky.social (11/x) 020
Matt McBride @mcbride-matt.bsky.social · 23/07/2026Compiling data whether in Excel, or a PDF editor, or Word is just part of the normal process of satisfying public records requests. (10/x) 100
Matt McBride @mcbride-matt.bsky.social · 23/07/2026The logical endpoint of their argument on the visibility data is to withhold ALL electronically-held information - including emails - because it has to be compiled by them to satisfy public records requests. This is, of course, ludicrous. (9/x) 100
Matt McBride @mcbride-matt.bsky.social · 23/07/2026This is not the only way SWBNO holds back public information. Since March, I've had a request pending with them for emails by gen'l superintendent Kaitlin Tymrak and her subordinate Steven Giang using the word "Panola" around the time of the water main breaks. (8/x) 100
Matt McBride @mcbride-matt.bsky.social · 23/07/2026So SWBNO says all their electronically generated data from instrumentation is now off limits, because they have to spit it out into a readable format. This despite the fact they produced such data a slew of times from 2020 to 2024 without question (7/x) 100
Matt McBride @mcbride-matt.bsky.social · 23/07/2026They have sent a response to my request for visibility data for May 20, June 18, and July 11 data, referring to one of my earlier rejected water system data requests. They claim it is "not in custody" because the data has to be compiled and they shouldn't have to release it (6/x) 100
Matt McBride @mcbride-matt.bsky.social · 23/07/2026The SWBNO responses for the water data were cryptic. They said the records were "not in the custody of the Sewerage and Water Board of New Orleans." Now I have found out exactly what that means. (5/x) 100
Matt McBride @mcbride-matt.bsky.social · 23/07/2026A few months ago, I repeatedly requested water pressure data from around the times of the major water main breaks, to investigate if the levels in the water towers were too high. It seemed odd that there was a whole series of water main breaks, and then they just suddenly stopped. (4/x) 100
Matt McBride @mcbride-matt.bsky.social · 23/07/2026Earlier this week, I requested visibility platform data for the three most recent major storm events when there were problems: May 20 (voltage sag to power complex), June 18 (voltage sag to power complex), & July 11 (flooding from DPS 7 and Pritchard pump station failures). (3/x) 100
Matt McBride @mcbride-matt.bsky.social · 23/07/2026The SWBNO visibility platform is a huge database which captures minute-to-minute data from digital gauges across drainage, water, and power equipment, which can be output into Excel spreadsheets. It is far more informative than the paper logs still kept by SWBNO pumping and power staff. (2/x) 100
Matt McBride @mcbride-matt.bsky.social · 23/07/2026The Sewerage and Water Board claims transparency. In practice they are very interested in keeping public information from the public. Since the beginning of the year I have tried to obtain information from their data systems, as I have over a dozen times since 2020. Now they refuse. (1/x) 132
Matt McBride @mcbride-matt.bsky.social · 22/06/2026It is over 96 hours out from the National Weather Service warnings which started a legislatively mandated 48 hour clock for SWBNO to report the status and performance of pumps, power, and staffing of the drainage system to the CityCouncil @nolautilities.bsky.social. No report on the Council website. 022
Matt McBride @mcbride-matt.bsky.social · 21/06/2026My point is that if SWBNO wants to use other sources of power to drive pumps, they don't have enough reliable sources to do that. Their threat to move away from the Entergy substation puts the city in greater jeopardy of flooding and boil water advisories. (7/x) 022
Matt McBride @mcbride-matt.bsky.social · 21/06/2026The remaining assets are rickety. WW2-era rotary frequency changers and the never-working EMD generators are still around as secondary backups, but they can't really be counted on. Almost all the underground 25Hz cables from the plant to the pumps are in a state of failure. (6/x) 100
Matt McBride @mcbride-matt.bsky.social · 21/06/2026But they never got money for T8&T9, so T6 & T5 took their place as the primary backups alongside future T7. At one point, even T4 was to remain but that was scrapped. (5/x) 100
Matt McBride @mcbride-matt.bsky.social · 21/06/2026The original plan was for three 22 MW static frequency converters (SFC's 1,2,3) with three new 22 MW 60 Hz gas turbine generators (T7,T8,T9) providing full backup. Everything else was to be trashed. (4/x) 100
Matt McBride @mcbride-matt.bsky.social · 21/06/2026There's no indication their new 22 MW, 60 Hz turbine T7 is online (it has yet to show up on their dashboard). The only other 60 Hz turbine is T6 (also 22 MW) from 2011, which has been problematic. The other turbine, 25 Hz T5, is from 1962, has reduced capacity (16 MW) and is out of service. (3/x) 110
Matt McBride @mcbride-matt.bsky.social · 21/06/2026If they SWBNO is serious about moving away from Entergy transmission power as a source for pump power during storms (the very reason for the entire substation and power complex!), it's worth examining exactly what the other sources are. (2/x) 110
Matt McBride @mcbride-matt.bsky.social · 21/06/2026The finger pointing was always going to come. The far, far greater outrage is SWBNO saying they are going to chuck the Entergy substation during storms, after the city put tens of millions of its own dollars into it. (1/x) 121
Matt McBride @mcbride-matt.bsky.social · 20/06/2026It has now been over two days since the SWBNO $350 million West Power Complex failed in its first big test, and the agency has yet to reveal any details about a possible cause, the extent of the failure through the water and drainage systems, or if there is any solution. 065
Matt McBride @mcbride-matt.bsky.social · 18/06/2026Numerous other priorities were sacrificed to fund the SWBNO power complex. The city kicked in tons of money. S&WB put off critical repairs to the water system. The feds and state kicked in huge sums. Everyone deserves answers and they deserve them right now. (5/x) 053
Matt McBride @mcbride-matt.bsky.social · 18/06/2026At the very least, SWBNO and Entergy New Orleans should have a pretty good handle on what happened, including if the problem - or problems - was in the Entergy substation or the S&WB power equipment. They also know what was done to get power flowing again. (4/x) 143
Matt McBride @mcbride-matt.bsky.social · 18/06/2026That they have not held a press conference yet is inexplicable. I can personally vouch it would take less than an hour to collect, collate, and summarize the impacts on the water and drainage pumping systems of such an outage. I have done so with public records. (3/x) 141
Matt McBride @mcbride-matt.bsky.social · 18/06/2026They have data platforms which collect second-by-second data on every pump, as well as every major piece of electrical equipment. they have logs. Almost undoubtedly, the employees who were working this morning are likely still there. (2/x) 131
Matt McBride @mcbride-matt.bsky.social · 18/06/2026Whether or not SWBNO knows the exact cause for the apparent massive failure of their brand new multi-million dollar, publicly funded power complex this morning, they do know exactly what the consequences were and have yet to say. (1/x) 165
Matt McBride @mcbride-matt.bsky.social · 18/06/2026As always, they know exactly what happened in real time, and could easily compile that data and already have it out to the public. (9/x) 010
Matt McBride @mcbride-matt.bsky.social · 18/06/2026The water pumps, like the drainage pumps, are also a mix of sizes and power frequencies. Depending on how many 25 Hz units were running at the time of the outage and how quickly they could swing in other pumps or power supplies, it is possible they could have avoided 20 psi, but who knows? (8/x) 110
Matt McBride @mcbride-matt.bsky.social · 18/06/2026Given the water towers supply only 40 minutes of reserve pressure, a 60 minute outage of any of the water pumps is very concerning. If pressure dropped below 20 psi for even an instant, a citywide boil water advisory could be needed. (7/x) 110
Matt McBride @mcbride-matt.bsky.social · 18/06/2026SWBNO says the outage lasted 30 minutes to an hour and affected water pumps. They have been very cagey on how the new power complex powers 25 Hz water pumps, but this incident should shake those details loose (6/x). 110
Matt McBride @mcbride-matt.bsky.social · 18/06/2026Each big (14 foot diameter) 25 Hz pump draws about 2 MW of power. Smaller (12 foot diam) draws about 0.8 MW). Without knowing what was running at the time of the outage, it is impossible to say if a single SFC went down or more than one. (5/x) 110
Matt McBride @mcbride-matt.bsky.social · 18/06/2026If every 25 Hz pump in all seven stations listed in the article went down, that could indicate a problem with the SWBNO West Power Complex beyond a single new static frequency changer (SFC). But we don't know how many pumps were running. A single SFC puts out 22 MW of power. They have 3. (4/x) 110
Matt McBride @mcbride-matt.bsky.social · 18/06/2026Part of the confusion is the S&WB pump dashboard conflates entire stations with individual pumps. For example, station 6 has 15 pumps in a range of sizes. About half are 25 Hz and half are 60 Hz. But the dashboard just uses a single dot to say the station is running. Meaningless (3/x) 110
Matt McBride @mcbride-matt.bsky.social · 18/06/2026There's nine stations with 25 Hz pumps: 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,11, and 12. They say all but 5 (Lower 9) and 11 (Lower Coast Algiers) went offline. But only 3 stations run exclusively on 25 Hz: 2, 3, and 12. The others also have 60 Hz pumps. (2/x) 110
Matt McBride @mcbride-matt.bsky.social · 18/06/2026As usual, SWBNO communications is making things more confusing. According to their spokesperson (thru the T-P) the 25 Hz outage this morning knocked seven entire stations offline. That's impossible. (1/x) 110
Matt McBride @mcbride-matt.bsky.social · 18/06/2026Finally, the complex is not done. There's a new turbine intended as partial backup power - T7 - which is not online. The remainder of their backups are unreliable T5 and T6, EMD's, and frequency changers. T5 is down. There were supposed to be two completely turbines (T8 & T9) - but there was no $$. 131
Matt McBride @mcbride-matt.bsky.social · 18/06/2026But everything can break, and S&WB's record on maintenance is terrible. So is their record on training their employees how to use and troubleshoot new equipment (they have had to call in GE for work on T6 for years). There's so many things that can go wrong with the new complex. 121
Matt McBride @mcbride-matt.bsky.social · 18/06/2026Yes and no. First off, it's not just a new substation, which is just the Entergy part. It is an entire complex which pulls power from the Entergy substation and converts it to 25 Hz power. As for reliability, the S&WB substation pulls directly from transmission lines, which are more reliable. 140
Matt McBride @mcbride-matt.bsky.social · 18/06/2026Note that SWBNO entered this storm with very little reliable backup capacity for failure of the primary power system. Turbine 5 has been out of service, leaving T6, EMDs, and frequecy changers. 052
Matt McBride @mcbride-matt.bsky.social · 18/06/2026Something major happened with the brand new SWBNO power system, knocking out drainage and water pumps for 30 minutes, according to a press release. No word yet on a boil water advisory. 287
