Broussard, Lafayette Water Dispute Continues

Another shot has been fired in the water war between Lafayette Utility System and the city of Broussard.

"LUS officials have made public statements in the past week concerning the 'water dispute' litigation between the cities of Broussard and Lafayette which are inaccurate and misleading," Broussard mayor Charles Langlinais said in a media release.

That assertion stems from recent statements made by LUS Director Terry Huval. Tuesday, Huval said they found three intersection points that cross the Broussard system with Lafayette's.

Broussard, though, says those connection points have been there for years, and LUS has known about them.

"The connections are not new," Langlinais says. "They're over 15 years old and all of them were there when Broussard and Lafayette signed their current water contract in 1998."

Langlinais says the three connections are "entirely inside the city of Broussard system."

Tensions between Broussard and LUS came to a head late last year after LUS discovered a bypass line, normally used for maintenance, was being used to divert water from Lafayette around a meter and into Broussard. Broussard officials say they don't understand how the bypass line was activated, nor how LUS employees monitoring the meter never noticed water was not flowing through it from 2006 to 2011.

Lafayette presented Broussard with a more than $825,000 bill, which the city paid in full. They then filed a lawsuit against Lafayette, claiming LUS used faulty logic and bad math when it came up with the amount of the water bill.