New Orleans City Council expands Sewerage and Water Board oversight as Act 938 takes effect

New Orleans City Council authority over the Sewerage and Water Board expanded August 1 under Act 938, giving the council a larger formal role in utility governance, budgets, billing policies, contracts and operations.

The change comes as residents and businesses continue to deal with flooding, pump failures, water-pressure problems and long-running service complaints. It does not, by itself, fix those problems or guarantee immediate changes to rates, staffing or reliability.

What Act 938 changes

Act 938, created through House Bill 1243, became law without the governor’s signature. The Louisiana Legislature’s bill record lists August 1, 2026, as the effective date.

The law authorizes the New Orleans City Council to exercise regulatory authority and oversight over the Sewerage and Water Board, including the ability to regulate or require council approval of rates, fees and charges; annual operating budgets; capital budgets and capital improvement plans; board policies involving billing, finance, operations and governance; contracts; and the election of the executive director and hiring of board employees.

That authority remains subject to state law and may not impair the utility’s existing obligations. The council may also open an investigation into matters within its regulatory authority, including after a catastrophic failure of the city’s sewerage and drainage infrastructure, and may request information from the board.

Act 938 also changes the board’s membership structure. It adds a council-linked member, requires mayoral appointments to receive council advice and consent, and requires citizen appointments to include representation from the city’s five council districts. Two of the citizen appointees must be consumer advocates with relevant community, consumer-protection or related experience.

What the council did first

On July 30, a joint City Council committee considered legislation to establish the local framework for the new oversight role. The council said the committee approved requests for a legislative audit of the Sewerage and Water Board’s fiscal structure and available funds.

The committee also requested a review of possible administrative personnel overlap. Those are pending proceedings, not completed findings. The audit has not established whether funds were mishandled, and the personnel review has not produced a final conclusion about staffing or management.

The council’s action followed recent flooding and pump failures that drew complaints from residents and businesses. Independent local reporting said council members viewed the new authority as a way to examine the utility’s finances, contracts and spending more directly than before.

August 6 is the next checkpoint

Ordinance Calendar No. 35,521 is scheduled for final consideration at the City Council meeting on August 6, 2026. As of Tuesday, August 4, that vote remains a future action. Its final language and implementation effects should be distinguished from Act 938, which is already in effect.

Questions include how the council will apply its new authority, how oversight will be coordinated with the mayor and the Sewerage and Water Board, and what the audit and personnel review will find. The law does not itself establish that rates, service reliability or staffing will change immediately.

Why customers should care

The utility’s problems have direct consequences for households, employers and ratepayers. On Saturday, July 25, the Sewerage and Water Board issued a precautionary boil-water advisory for the entire Westbank after water pressure fell below 20 pounds per square inch. The utility attributed the pressure drop to a combination of pump issues and a water tank at the Algiers Water Plant being down for routine maintenance. The utility said it was investigating the pump problems and that pressure had returned to normal.

The advisory told affected customers to use bottled or boiled water for drinking, cooking, cleaning food and brushing teeth until further notice. The episode was not identified as being caused by the oversight transition. It illustrates the kind of service reliability, infrastructure and public communication issue that residents will expect the new oversight structure to address.

For now, customers should continue relying on direct Sewerage and Water Board advisories for boil-water instructions, pressure notices and other service updates. The key tests of the new arrangement will come later: the August 6 council action, the results of any audit, implementation rules, utility performance and any future effects on rates or customer bills.

Sources

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