In the coming years, two 200-foot water towers — perhaps emblazoned with the popular Sewerage & Water Board logo — will become a feature of the Carrollton-area skyline, and federal preservationists want to hear your best ideas on how to lessen their impact on the historic New Orleans neighborhood.
The water-treatment facility on South Claiborne Avenue has suffered from a series of temporary power outages in recent years that have caused water-pressure to drop around the entire East Bank of New Orleans. The water towers are a method to prevent that — if power is lost, their 2 million-gallon reserves will maintain water pressure to prevent a boil-water notice, said Gail Lazarus, a historic preservationist with the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
One of the towers will be near the entrance and visitor parking area near South Claiborne, and the other will be closer to the rear of the plant by Panola and Leonidas. Construction will begin later this year — after the drainage canal on South Carrollton is finished — and be complete in 2018, with far less disruption to residents than other major public-works projects.
“All the construction’s going to be inside the plant,” Lazarus said Thursday night to the Carrollton Riverbend Neighborhood Association. “It’s not going to be bleeding out onto the roads.”
The historic preservationists have already begun making recommendations about the design of the towers, suggesting that a more angular, “composite” tower with a solid, conical stem may be more appropriate than the modern spheres that sit atop tall poles such as in Jefferson Parish. She emphasized, however, that they will not be a mere replica of a historic tank — just something that incorporates ideas from the same era as the neighborhood’s founding.
“You’re not making a fake historic thing,” Lazarus said. “You’re putting something that blends in.”
Preservationists have recommended a color that echoes the smokestacks at the Carrollton plant for the stem, and a lighter color that somewhat blends in with the sky for the upper area of the tank, Lazarus said. As for the labeling directly on the towers, Lazarus said, that remains under consideration, but one suggestion has been to use the moon-and-stars S&WB logo that is already a part of the New Orleans identity.
Historic preservationists have evaluated the $48 million FEMA-funded project and concluded there is no feasible way other than the towers to accomplish the Sewerage and Water Board’s goals, Lazarus said: smaller towers simply do not achieve the same results. But the preservationists do recognize that the towers in the sky will alter the historic area’s appearance, and federal laws require FEMA to seek out ways to give back to the community that is affected.
“That’s pretty much the exact language, to ‘consider’ the impact on historic properties. This law encourages historic preservation; it does not mandate preservation,” Lazarus said. “But the visual effect on a historic neighborhood is one kind of effect.”
In many cases, Lazarus said, FEMA creates projects to highlight the history of the impacted entity. For example, she said, the agency actually recreated the school room where Ruby Bridges was taught after integrating New Orleans schools.
For the Carrollton project, Lazarus said the Sewerage and Water Board plant and systems themselves are a crucial part of New Orleans history, and she might like to see ways of emphasizing that. The agency has considered creating some sort of history exhibit, or perhaps signage in more commercial areas like Oak Street that would educate the public about it. Because of homeland security concerns, however, there are limitations to what can be done on the site of the plant itself, she noted.
Members of the Carrollton Riverbend Neighborhood Association asked what kind of budget the mitigation project might have, and Lazarus said FEMA discourages setting a firm budget beforehand. It might discourage ideas from being submitted, she said — and the number is also difficult to gauge because the historic preservationists may do much of the work themselves, rather than contracting it out.
“Even if the idea is crazy, and there’s no way we can spend that much money, maybe we can take a portion of it,” Lazarus said.
The project drew little outright opposition from the association — perhaps because of its seeming inevitability — but members did express interest in contributing to the mitigation effort.
“I’m going to do a little research,” said association president Barry Brantley. “I don’t know what’s reasonable to ask, but I feel like it’s our responsibility to have a voice.”
Anyone who has an idea should submit it before the March 25 deadline, either online at www.crt.state.la.us/culturalassets/fema106/ (where you can also read comments that have already been submitted) or by mail to the FEMA Mail Center/Historic Preservation, 1500 Main Street, Baton Rouge, LA, 70802.