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Franklin mayor says fix to water issue is on the way, resident says solution doesn't address problem
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FRANKLIN - Residents in Franklin want to turn on their faucets and see clear, running water. While the city efforts on a two-phase multimillion-dollar water plant renovation, residents say it only partly addresses the problem.
Resident Skip Hebert did not plan to spend his 80th birthday scooping raw sewage out of his yard, but that is how he spent the weekend. He said, last year, a city crew came out to fix a pipe and failed to reconnect the sewage line to the city line.
"My sewage for the last year has been going right there into the yard, in the ground," Hebert said.
His clean-up efforts hindered when the water pressure went out. Hebert and other residents told WBRZ, they face water quality issues, constant water shut-offs and a lack of communication from the city.
"I don't drink the city water. I haven't drunk the city water since I was a little kid and we could drink it out of the faucet," Hebert said.
According to Mayor Eugene Foulcard, crews dredged the area in Bayou Teche near the raw water intake on Thursday. The next day, the raw water intake pumps failed. By Friday afternoon, the city shut the plant down. On Saturday morning, the water was back on, but the boil water advisory remains in place.
"If I had known it would take as long as it did, I would have gotten some water to flush the toilets," Hebert said.
The State Department of Health found significant problems at the plant after a sanitation survey earlier this month.
"We are in the process of correcting some of the issues they had with our sanitary survey, that's part of all the rehab work that we are doing," Foulcard said.
Back in April 2024, the city secured $2,400,000 in capital outlay funds to rehabilitate the water plant. It required a 25-percent match from city taxpayer dollars. The project was divided into two phases with the second phase getting the greenlight to go out for bid last week. Phase one included backwash pumps, turbidity meters and raw water catch basins. Foulcard said phase one finished in March 2025.
He said Thursday's dredging was in preparation of phase two of the water plant renovation project.
Foulcard said improvements to the water plant are about 40 years overdue. He said a study conducted prior to 2018 estimated it would take roughly $35,000,000 to make the needed improvements to both the water plant and distribution system. Foulcard said he expected that cost to be even higher in 2026.
Foulcard said phase two includes replacing the raw water intake pumps as well as adding valves to pipes within the water distribution system. He said the valves would allow city crews to turn off water to specific streets when pipes need work instead of entire neighborhoods.
Residents say the valves should help, but part of the problem lies with the roughly 100-year-old water distribution lines running throughout the city.
"If you've got lines busting every 20 feet, it's never going to stop," Hebert said.
The mayor said he wants to replace the water distribution lines, but the city has secured no money to do so.
The next council meeting is set for March 17.
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