PUBLIC NOTICE
INVITATION FOR CONSULTING ENGINEERING SERVICES
TENSAS Parish invites qualified engineering firms to submit a Statement of Qualifications for the following project:
TENSAS PARISH – PARISH WIDE GENERATOR PROJECT
PARISH PROJECT NO. 4559 AND 4611
RFQ NO. 2025-1
ENGINEERING FEE: TO BE NEGOTIATED
This project and the procedures for the selection of this firm will be in accordance with all requirements of the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Hazard Mitigation Assistance (HMA), Federal Code of Regulations (2CRF200), the State of Louisiana, and the standard of Tensas Parish Police Jury. All responses received will be evaluated in accordance with the selection criteria identified in the Request for Qualifications information packet available from Tensas Parish Police Jury. That information also identifies the scope of services to be performed by the selected firm.
All engineering firms shall also be registered with the Louisiana State Board of Registration for Professional Engineers and Land Surveyors, in accordance with LA RS 37:689. A copy of the current Certificate(s) of Registration shall be attached to each Statement of Qualification. Failure to be registered and in good standing with the aforementioned board will lead to the rejection of qualifications statement.
TENSAS Parish will award the project to the respondent obtaining the highest recommendation and points based upon a section committee review of the submitted Statement of Qualifications and work references.
Interested firms are invited to secure an informational packet from Tensas Parish Police Jury, Pauline Doyle, Secretary-Treasurer, paulinedoyle@tppj.org or download an electronic copy of the official Request for Qualifications packet from Central Bidding website: www.centralbidding.com. Only those firms that have responded in accordance with the official RFQ packet for this project obtained from Tensas Parish Police Jury or Central Bidding will be considered by Tensas Parish Selection Committee. Additionally, the firm selected for this project will be required to execute the Parish standard contract for Engineering Services as amended for this project. The overall level and scope of services will be determined by TENSAS Parish. A fixed sum contract will be negotiated with the selected firm. Responding firms must be prepared to provide an audited overhead rate for the purpose of contract negotiation and determination of cost reasonableness. Any questions or problems related
to the download of the RFQ packet should be directed by email to Pauline Doyle, paulinedoyle@tppj.org.
The response to this RFQ must be hand delivered or mailed to the above-named person at Tensas Parish Police Jury, 212 Hancock Street, St. Joseph, LA 71366 in such a manner that it is received no later than 1:00 P.M., May 16, 2025. Statements of Qualifications that have not been received by the deadline date and time will be rejected.
TENSAS Parish Government is an Equal Opportunity Employer. Responding firms are encouraged to utilize minority participation in this contract through the use of disadvantaged and women-owned businesses as suppliers or sub-contractors. TENSAS Parish Government encourages submission by DBE, minority, veteran, and/or women owned businesses.
TENSAS PARISH POLICE JURY
Pauline Doyle-Secretary-Treasurer
4/16, 4/23, 4/30
Cost is $68.40
IMPORTANT INFORMATION ABOUT YOUR DRINKING WATER
Newellton Water System Did Not Meet Treatment Requirements
Our water system recently violated drinking water requirements. Although this situation does not require that you take immediate action, as our customers, you have a right to know what happened, what you should do, and what we did (are doing) to correct this situation.
Inadequate Disinfection in the Distribution – In order to ensure proper disinfection, water in the treatment plant must be in contact with enough chloramine for a minimum amount of time.
On May 17, 2022, December 14, 15, 24 and 26 2022, January 17, 19, 21, 22 and 31, 2024, and February 1 through the 9, 2024, the disinfectant residual dropped below the state minimum level of 0.5 mg/L for more than 4 hours at the point of entry to the water system.
We also routinely monitor for disinfectant residual in the distribution system. This measurement tells us whether we are effectively disinfecting the water supply. Disinfectant residual is the amount of chlorine or related disinfectant present in the pipes of the distribution system. If the amount of disinfectant is too low, organisms could grow in the pipes.
During the months of July through August 2020, October 2020, April, July, October 2021, May, December 2022, and January through March, May, August through October, December 2023, January through February 2024, and November 2024 the disinfectant residual was below 0.5 mg/l in more than 5% of samples. The standard is that disinfectant may be less than 0.5 mg/l in no more than 5% of samples each month for two months in a row.
Inadequate Disinfection During Treatment – In order to ensure proper disinfection, water in the treatment plant must be in contact with enough chlorine or a similar disinfectant for a minimum amount of time. Although chlorine quickly kills most bacteria, it is less effective against organisms such as viruses and parasites. For this reason, water needs to mix with chlorine for a longer time period to kill such organisms. The amount of time necessary, or the “contact time,” depends on the amount of disinfectant in the water and the temperature of the water.
During the period from January 2022 through November 2022, the Newellton Water System has not monitored parameters to calculate if the minimum contact time for viruses was achieved by disinfection.
Turbidity Level Exceedance – We routinely monitor your water for turbidity (cloudiness). This tells us whether we are effectively filtering the water supply. The Surface Water Treatment Rule (SWTR) requires our treated water to meet 0.3 Nephelometric Treatment Units (NTUs) or less in 95 percent of the measurements per month.
During the October 2019, December 2019, April through July 2020, February 2021, December 1, 2022, January 2024 and February 2024 compliance monitoring periods, the Newellton Water System was in violation of the Surface Water Treatment Rule. The violation occurred because the treated water turbidity level exceeded 0.3 NTU in treated water monthly measurements.
The water system is also in violation of the Louisiana State Sanitary Code for failure to achieve the required minimum percent reduction of total organic carbon (TOC) in the water being treated. This type of violation is referred to as a treatment technique (TT) violation. During the months of April through September 2021, January through March 2022, April through September 2022, and April through May 2024 the water system failed to achieve the required minimum percent reduction of TOC.
We are required to monitor your drinking water for specific parameters on a regular basis. Results of regular monitoring are an indicator of whether or not our drinking water meets health standards.
During the months of June 2023 through November 2023 we did not monitor for total organic carbon (TOC) in the water being treated and therefore cannot be sure of the quality of your drinking water during that time. Compliance with the TOC standard is determined by calculating a running annual average (RAA), determined quarterly, using the previous 12 monthly TOC sample result removal ratios. To meet the TOC standard, our system is required to achieve a RAA removal ratio of 1.00 or greater. The RAA removal ratio at the end of the 3rd calendar quarter of 2023 was 0.67; therefore, we failed to meet the required RAA removal ratio of 1.00 or greater.
Monitoring of residual disinfectant and turbidity levels – Newellton Water System is currently in violation of the State and Federal Primary Drinking Water Regulations. The violation occurred because non-compliance was determined as a result of failure to submit monthly operating reports to the State by the tenth (10th) of the following month as prescribed by LDH’s Surface Water Treatment Rule. This type of violation is referred to as a monitoring and reporting violation. As our customers, you have a right to know what happened and what we are doing to correct this situation.
Newellton Water System is required to monitor your drinking water for turbidity and disinfectant residual and to report such results to the Louisiana Department of Health, Office of Public Health (LDH-OPH) within ten (10) days of the end of each monitoring period. Results of regular monitoring are an indicator of whether or not your drinking water meets health standards.
For the June, July, August, September, October and November monitoring period, the Newellton Water System failed to report monitoring and testing results to LDH for treated water turbidity and disinfectant residuals measurements, and therefore cannot be sure of the quality of your drinking water during that time. Because of this violation, LDH-OPH is also unable to ensure that the quality of your drinking water met state and federal drinking water standards during that time.
Lead and Copper Monitoring – Our water system did not fulfill our monitoring requirements over the past year. Even though this was not an emergency, as our customers, you have a right to know what happened and what we did to correct the situation.
We are required to monitor your drinking water for specific contaminants on a regular basis. Results of regular monitoring are an indicator of whether or not our drinking water meets health standards. During the period of January 1 through December 31, 2024, we did not complete all required monitoring for lead and copper and, therefore, cannot be sure of the quality of our drinking water during that time.
What should I do?
There is nothing you need to do. You do not need to boil your water or take other corrective actions.
However, if you have specific health concerns, consult your doctor. If you have a severely compromised immune system, have an infant, are pregnant, or are elderly, you may be at increased risk and should seek advice from your health care providers about drinking this water. General guidelines on ways to lessen the risk of infection by microbes are available from EPA’s Safe Drinking Water Hotline at 1-800-426-4791.
What does this mean?
This is not an emergency. If it had been, you would have been notified within 24 hours. Tests taken during the time of the violations did not indicate the presence of bacteria in the water.
Turbidity has no health effects. However, turbidity can interfere with disinfection and provide medium for microbial growth. Turbidity may indicate the presence of disease-causing organisms. These organisms include bacteria, viruses, and parasites that can cause symptoms such as nausea, cramps, diarrhea and associated headaches. These symptoms, however, are not just associated with disease-causing organisms in drinking water, but also may be caused by a number of factors other than your drinking water. EPA has set enforceable requirements for treating drinking water to reduce the risk of these adverse health effects. Treatment such as filtering and disinfecting the water removes or destroys microbiological contaminants. Drinking water which is treated to meet EPA requirements is associated with little to none of this risk and should be considered safe.
The Louisiana Department of Health (LDH) sets drinking water standards and has determined that the presence of microbiological contaminants are a health concern at certain levels of exposure. If water is inadequately treated, microbiological contaminants in that water may cause disease. Disease symptoms may include diarrhea, cramps, nausea, and possibly jaundice, and any associated headaches and fatigue. These symptoms, however are not just associated with disease-causing organisms in drinking water, but also may be caused by a number of factors other than your drinking water. LDH has set enforceable requirements for treating drinking water to reduce the risk of these adverse health effects. Treatment such as filtering and disinfecting the water removes or destroys microbiological contaminants. Drinking water which is treated to meet LDH requirements is associated with little to none of this risk and should be considered safe.
These symptoms, however, are not caused only by organisms in drinking water, but also by other factors. If you experience any of these symptoms and they persist, you may want to seek medical advice.
Total organic carbon (TOC) has no health effects. However, total organic carbon provides a medium for the formation of disinfection byproducts. These byproducts include trihalomethanes (THMs) and haloacetic acids (HAAs). Drinking water containing these byproducts in excess of the MCL may lead to adverse health effects, liver or kidney problems, or nervous system effects, and may lead to an increased risk of getting cancer.
What is being done?
Action has been taken to prevent this violation from recurring. “JCP Management is responsible for treating the Town of Newellton’s water. JCP will continue to monitor the treated water’s chlorine residual and Total Organic Carbon (TOC) reduction rate to ensure that they meet state and federal drinking water standards. In addition, the Town of Newellton is in the process of consolidating water systems with Tensas Water. This project is expected to ensure that the city of Newellton is able to provide its customers with water that meets all applicable state and federal requirements long term. The project is expected to be completed in July of 2026. For more information, please contact Canaan Cotten of JCP at 318-744-0308 or Newellton Town hall at 318-467-5050 if you have any additional questions or concerns”
Please share this information with all the other people who drink this water, especially those who may not have received this notice directly (for example, people in apartments, nursing homes, schools,
4/16
Cost is $ Cost is $206..40