Louisiana Falls Short On Brain-Eating Amoeba Oversight, Audit Finds

A recent government audit found Louisiana regulators are falling short in their oversight of the so-called “brain-eating” amoeba Naegleria fowleri, which has taken three lives in the state since 2011.

The audit found funding challenges are translating as oversight gaps. In Louisiana and across the country, tight budgets mean regulatory agencies have limited resources.

The Louisiana Office of Public Health (OPH) should “evaluate the additional requirements necessary for regulating iron and manganese levels and for monitoring Naegleria fowleri, prioritize these duties with staffing availability, and consider using the additional sanitarian positions from Act 605 to assist with these additional monitoring requirements,” the audit said.

The audit, conducted by the Louisiana Legislative Auditor’s Office and released in August, examined operations at the OPH. Emily Wilson, a manager for the audit, explained the impetus for the report, per KNOE 8 News.

“Drinking water has kind of been a hot topic for awhile, and you hear about St. Joe's [water] and all the different brain-eating amoeba. So we decided to go in there and kind of look, and say you know, is OPH doing everything that it can or that it's supposed to be doing?" she said.

"They're struggling with that, but the legislature was aware of this and is aware of this. In fact, this last year they passed an act that increased the safe drinking water fee that water systems pay, and that's going to bring in probably an average of about 13 million [dollars] more per year starting next year, and OPH is going to be using that money to hire additional sanitarians," Wilson said.

The report states that the brain-eating amoeba was a major reason officials decided to study the water oversight.

“The purpose of this audit was to evaluate whether the OPH’s monitoring and enforcement activities ensure that public water systems provide safe drinking water to consumers in accordance with state and federal regulations. We conducted this audit because of issues with Louisiana’s drinking water, including concerns over the color and smell and the presence of Naegleria fowleri (brain-eating amoeba) in some parishes, which has resulted in three deaths in Louisiana since 2011,” the audit said.

The OPH told KNOE 8 News that it agrees with the findings of the audit and that changes will begin this month, starting with regular amoeba sampling.

After a brain-eating amoeba death three years ago, Louisiana imposed regulations directly addressing the threat, the Associated Press reported. The rules required that water systems maintain higher disinfectant levels and boost water sampling sites by 25 percent.

Daryl Purpera, the Louisiana legislative auditor, noted that funding is a reason for the OPH’s shortcomings, according to The Minden Press-Herald.

“Performance auditors noted several concerns in their report, including the fact that OPH relies on the water systems to collect most of the samples used to test for contamination,” he said. “The agency has had to do that since 2012 because of reductions in its staff, and because of a new federal Environmental Protection Agency rule that requires increased sampling. As a result, OPH cannot ensure that the samples are properly collected.”

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