Louisiana Department of Health released final water grades for 951 community water systems across La.

LOUISIANA (KLFY) - The Louisiana Department of Health (LDH) released final water grades for 951 community water systems across the state.

This is a process that creates accountability for water systems and provides transparency for water system customers.

The final water grades follow preliminary grades that were published in January. The preliminary grades may not have included data for financial sustainability, customer satisfaction or bonus points awarded to a water system. The new data included in calculating the final grades will mean letter grade changes for some water systems.

The water grades are enabled under Act 98 of the 2021 Regular Session of the Louisiana Legislature, and is known as the Community Drinking Water Accountability Rule. The grades are calculated using points assigned to seven standards that evaluate the infrastructure, sustainability and overall water quality.

Water grade distribution:

• A: 386 systems, or 41%
• B: 256 systems, or 27%
• C: 171 systems, or 18%
• D: 56 systems, or 6%
• F: 82 systems, or 9%

Determining a water system's grade

There are seven standards evaluated to determine a system's grade. These standards are:

• Federal water quality violations
• State violations
• Financial sustainability
• Operation and maintenance
• Infrastructure
• Customer satisfaction
• Secondary contaminants (iron and Manganese)

The LDH water grades page can be found at ldh.la.gov/watergrade.