Skip to content
RollCall logo
Fact
ba
.
se

Remarks: Joe Biden Tours a New Orleans Water Treatment Plant - May 6, 2021

  • Ghassan Korban
    Person
  • Joe Biden
    Person
  • Ron Spooner
    Person
  • Kaitlin Tamryk
    Person
  • Chad Lavoie
    Person
  • Christy Harowski
    Person
  • LaToya Cantrell
    Person
  • Note
    Person
  • Unidentified
    Person
  • Ramsey Green
    Person

Christy Harowski

Neutral
00:00:00-00:00:01 (1 sec)
"Mr. President --" 1

Ghassan Korban

Neutral
00:00:01-00:00:01 ( sec)
"Hello." 2

Christy Harowski

Neutral
00:00:01-00:00:02 (1 sec)
"-- we have you right here on the blue mark." 3

Joe Biden

Neutral
00:00:02-00:00:03 (1 sec)
"All right." 4

Christy Harowski

Neutral
00:00:03-00:00:05 (1 sec)
"Madame Mayor, we have you right here on the --" 5

Ghassan Korban

Neutral
00:00:05-00:00:05 ( sec)
"[Inaudible]" 6

Christy Harowski

Neutral
00:00:05-00:00:07 (2 sec)
"-- green mark." 7

LaToya Cantrell

Somewhat Positive
00:00:07-00:00:08 (1 sec)
"Thank you ma'am." 8

Christy Harowski

Neutral
00:00:08-00:00:13 (6 sec)
"And Mr. President, this is Ghassan Korban, the Executive Director of the Sewerage & Water Board, and this is Ramsey Green, Deputy CIO --" 9

Joe Biden

Neutral
00:00:13-00:00:14 ( sec)
"Hi --" 10

Christy Harowski

Neutral
00:00:14-00:00:15 (1 sec)
"-- of the City of New Orleans." 11

Joe Biden

Neutral
00:00:15-00:00:16 (1 sec)
"-- how are ya?" 12

Ramsey Green

Positive
00:00:16-00:00:16 ( sec)
"Good." 13

Christy Harowski

Neutral
00:00:16-00:00:17 (1 sec)
"You'll hear from both today. Ghassan --" 14

Ghassan Korban

Positive
00:00:17-00:00:18 ( sec)
"Good." 15

Christy Harowski

Neutral
00:00:18-00:00:19 (1 sec)
"-- go ahead and take it away." 16

Ghassan Korban

Very Positive
00:00:19-00:00:29 (10 sec)
"Thank you Christy. Mr. President, good afternoon. It's such an honor to have you here with us. It, just... It's an amazing moment. I'm gonna take a second just to cherish it, so thank you --" 17

Joe Biden

Neutral
00:00:29-00:00:29 ( sec)
"[Laughs]" 18

Ghassan Korban

Neutral
00:00:29-00:00:30 (1 sec)
"-- so much for being here." 19

Joe Biden

Somewhat Positive
00:00:30-00:00:30 ( sec)
"Thank you." 20

Ghassan Korban

Somewhat Positive
00:00:30-00:00:34 (3 sec)
"Madame Mayor, thank you so [Laughs] much for being here." 21

LaToya Cantrell

Somewhat Positive
00:00:34-00:00:34 (1 sec)
"Sure." 22

Ghassan Korban

Very Positive
00:00:34-00:01:07 (33 sec)
"It's always good to see you. Thank you for your leadership, not only as a mayor, but also as the president of the -- the utility and the board, so thank you so much for all your support with everything that we do. Again, Mr. President, it's just an honor. And I want to start by thanking you for selecting the Sewerage & Water Board and the Carrollton Water Plant as a site to showcase and to show, again, showcase your -- your, um, your vision to the country and for sharing your, um, passion about the water infrastructure." 23

Ghassan Korban

Very Positive
00:01:07-00:01:29 (22 sec)
"I've been in this business for about 30 years and this is the first time I can truly say that you are the first president who highlighted and elevated the in -- water infrastructure front and center as an issue for the entire country. And on behalf of all the utilities, water utilities in, across the nation, I thank you for that." 24

Joe Biden

Neutral
00:01:29-00:01:34 (5 sec)
"I used to be a county councilman there." 25

LaToya Cantrell

Neutral
00:01:34-00:01:34 ( sec)
"[Laughs]" 26

Joe Biden

Leans Negative
00:01:34-00:01:37 (3 sec)
"And one of the first major issues we had was dealing with water overflow. It's not like you have here --" 27

LaToya Cantrell

Positive
00:01:37-00:01:38 (1 sec)
"Yes." 28

Joe Biden

Slightly Positive
00:01:38-00:01:56 (18 sec)
"-- but there was a lot of construction. We were the fastest growing city, county in the metropolitan, nationally, in, uh, in 1970. And in '71 we had all these, all the construction and overflow, and we had to put in a title basin and the rest, and we had to put in a filtration facility." 29

Ghassan Korban

Slightly Positive
00:01:56-00:01:56 ( sec)
"Yeah." 30

Joe Biden

Neutral
00:01:56-00:01:58 (2 sec)
"And it was a lot, a lot of work." 31

LaToya Cantrell

Positive
00:01:58-00:01:59 (1 sec)
"Yes." 32

Ghassan Korban

Neutral
00:01:59-00:01:59 (1 sec)
"Absolutely." 33

Joe Biden

Leans Negative
00:01:59-00:02:01 (1 sec)
"It was way above my pay grade." 34

Ghassan Korban

Neutral
00:02:01-00:02:01 ( sec)
"[Laughs]" 35

LaToya Cantrell

Neutral
00:02:01-00:02:02 (2 sec)
"[Laughs]" 36

Ghassan Korban

Very Positive
00:02:02-00:02:30 (27 sec)
"Well, Mr. President, uh, before... We have a very exciting tour for you today. But before we start the tour, there are two unique facts about our city and about our system that I think are relevant for today's tour. And the first one is the fact that our city is divided by the Mississippi River. So we have two cities, really, as part of one, which, uh, which results in, uh, requiring us to have two separate facilities for the same purpose." 37

Ghassan Korban

Leans Positive
00:02:30-00:02:51 (21 sec)
"Such as a water filtration, uh -- uh, waste water treatment and -- and such, which adds a burden in terms of cost, ownership, and -- and maintenance. It's -- it's a unique situation for you today, but, like, our -- our -- ourselves. The other unique fact about the city is that we live in a bowl and much of the city lives below sea level." 38

Ghassan Korban

Very Positive
00:02:51-00:03:14 (23 sec)
"And the rel -- relevance of that, the significance of that is the fact that every time it rains, every drop that rains on this ci -- falls on the city must be actively pumped out. That's very significant for us as a utility, because not only we provide drinking water and treat waste water, but we're also responsible for the drainage as a utility, and we take that awesome responsibility very -- very seriously." 39

Ghassan Korban

Very Positive
00:03:14-00:03:33 (19 sec)
"Much like you talked about flooding, our charge, as a utility, is to prevent flooding or minimize it at best. And we have, we are challenged with the climate change and the enormity of and the frequency of the rainfalls that, uh, that we have been experiencing and we -- we think that we will continue to experience." 40

Ghassan Korban

Positive
00:03:33-00:04:14 (41 sec)
"The site you're sitting on today is about 74 acres. It's average of 100 years old, because parts of it is older than 100 and some of it is younger. It serves two purposes, um, providing drinking water for our community and we also generate power. And the significance of generating power on this, on this site, is the fact that on the, not only it allows us to drive drinking water pumps that deliver water to the distributing system, to deliver it to people's homes, but it also, equally important, it allows us to drive the, all the -- the pumps throughout the city, again, to pump the city dry and prevent it from -- from flooding." 41

Ghassan Korban

Neutral
00:04:14-00:04:17 (3 sec)
"So this is very crucial, um -- [Crosstalk]" 42

Joe Biden

Neutral
00:04:17-00:04:18 (2 sec)
"That's over here?" 43

Ghassan Korban

Neutral
00:04:18-00:04:25 (7 sec)
"The... So the river is over there. We're standing in the middle of two processes here. This is the -- the ins -- the chlorination basin." 44

Joe Biden

Neutral
00:04:25-00:04:26 ( sec)
"Gotcha." 45

Ghassan Korban

Neutral
00:04:26-00:04:35 (9 sec)
"So we introduce chlorine to this water, and we force it to walk slowly through, meanders through that basin, and so it goes to, into this basin right here which is the --" 46

Joe Biden

Slightly Positive
00:04:35-00:04:35 ( sec)
"Yeah." 47

Ghassan Korban

Very Positive
00:04:35-00:04:57 (22 sec)
"-- it's a [Inaudible] gallery, and it goes through a media of gravel, and sand, and charcoal, and then it ends up with an end product, the f -- the final product. So, it's very... And obviously, very crucial step that we do. So, there are three key steps to filtering water or providing good -- good water to our city." 48

Ghassan Korban

Very Positive
00:04:57-00:05:22 (25 sec)
"We pump water from the -- the Mississippi, get it to this point, we filter it, we d -- disinfect it, and we get it to the pumping stations where the pu -- the pumps put it in the distribution system. Three key steps. You're going to get a chance to see an active site where we show partnership with the federal government, with FEMA, improving the way we pump water into the distribution system." 49

Ghassan Korban

Positive
00:05:22-00:05:39 (17 sec)
"Again, very key step that we're doing very well at and once the project is complete, we're going to feel very good at that key step, but if we come back here, while things may look fairly nice on the -- on the surface, what lies beneath is a very antiquated and old system." 50

Joe Biden

Slightly Positive
00:05:39-00:05:40 (1 sec)
"Yeah." 51

Ghassan Korban

Very Negative
00:05:40-00:05:46 (7 sec)
"And it has served its life and every day that goes by, the risk of failure increases." 52

Joe Biden

Neutral
00:05:46-00:05:48 (1 sec)
"The whole system should be replaced, shouldn't it?" 53

Ghassan Korban

Very Negative
00:05:48-00:06:01 (14 sec)
"The whole system could -- could fail and render us dysfunctional in terms of providing drinking water. So, that's very concerning for us. Obviously, for the mayor because this is... I mean, it's existential as po -- as this can be in terms of having a city relying on us." 54

Joe Biden

Positive
00:06:01-00:06:02 (1 sec)
"Yes." 55

Ghassan Korban

Neutral
00:06:02-00:06:06 (4 sec)
"We -- We provide the water for the entire city of New Orleans." 56

LaToya Cantrell

Neutral
00:06:06-00:06:09 (3 sec)
"And we had to address a cross-connection issue." 57

Joe Biden

Slightly Positive
00:06:09-00:06:10 (1 sec)
"Yeah." 58

LaToya Cantrell

Very Positive
00:06:10-00:06:36 (25 sec)
"Several years ago. A couple... Two years ago. 'Cause what we found is we push our leadership to really explore. We found that the way we were using in terms of drinking was also cooling our turbine cross-connection. So, we had to ensure more allocated resources there to deal with cross-connection 'cause the drinking water is so... Such a big vital component." 59

Joe Biden

Slightly Positive
00:06:36-00:06:36 ( sec)
"Yeah." 60

LaToya Cantrell

Neutral
00:06:36-00:06:37 (1 sec)
"You know that." 61

Ghassan Korban

Leans Negative
00:06:37-00:06:56 (19 sec)
"And another -- another concern of ours, Mr. President, we know what's coming around the corner in terms of higher standards for quality of water. And we know, for a fact, that without making significant improvements for how we purify water, that we would not be able to meet those standards. I mean, it's a -- it's a given." 62

Ghassan Korban

Leans Positive
00:06:56-00:07:09 (13 sec)
"You would render us useless in terms of providing our community with, uh, drinking water. We are 100% supportive of the higher standards. With -- But we are definitely, um, challenged by the fact." 63

Joe Biden

Slightly Positive
00:07:09-00:07:09 ( sec)
"Yeah." 64

Ghassan Korban

Neutral
00:07:09-00:07:12 (3 sec)
"How do we get -- get ourselves to that -- to that level?" 65

Joe Biden

Negative
00:07:12-00:07:39 (27 sec)
"At the same time, as the rainfall and heat... You know, I've been very deeply involved and that we rejoin the Paris Climate Accord. I just had a meeting with, uh, 40 heads of state, and, uh, you know? We're -- We're talking about, uh, sea levels rising, water levels rising. And, uh, what would it take if you were s -- if you were starting... It's an unfair question, maybe." 66

Joe Biden

Neutral
00:07:39-00:07:44 (5 sec)
"If you were starting from scratch, what would you be building here now? What would you make?" 67

Ghassan Korban

Neutral
00:07:44-00:07:52 (8 sec)
"I would be building a more modern filtration, uh, um, facility for the next 50 to 75 years." 68

Joe Biden

Slightly Positive
00:07:52-00:07:53 (1 sec)
"Yeah." 69

Ghassan Korban

Positive
00:07:53-00:08:02 (9 sec)
"Utilizing the most up -- uh, modern, uh, state-of-the-art technology that it will produce much better quality water." 70

Joe Biden

Neutral
00:08:02-00:08:02 ( sec)
"Right." 71

Ghassan Korban

Neutral
00:08:02-00:08:14 (12 sec)
"And a higher standard at... Such as all the emerging cont -- contaminants that we need to capture that we are not able to capture with this current system. So, this... It -- It's a wholesale refurbishment of this." 72

Joe Biden

Neutral
00:08:14-00:08:20 (7 sec)
"Have you ever, uh, estimated the cost it would cost to do that? And how would you..." 73

LaToya Cantrell

Neutral
00:08:20-00:08:20 ( sec)
"Absolutely." 74

Joe Biden

Neutral
00:08:20-00:08:24 (3 sec)
"And how would you transition in the meantime?" 75

LaToya Cantrell

Neutral
00:08:24-00:08:24 (1 sec)
"Absolutely." 76

Joe Biden

Neutral
00:08:24-00:08:26 (1 sec)
"So, it..." 77

Christy Harowski

Positive
00:08:26-00:08:33 (7 sec)
"I believe Ghassan, that -- that Ramsey might have some good points on modernization and..." 78

Joe Biden

Neutral
00:08:33-00:08:35 (3 sec)
"The reason I ask the question..." 79

Ghassan Korban

Neutral
00:08:35-00:08:37 (2 sec)
"Not for this." 80

Ramsey Green

Positive
00:08:37-00:08:38 (1 sec)
"Yes, sir." 81

Joe Biden

Neutral
00:08:38-00:08:50 (12 sec)
"I -- I have this... What people don't quite understand is my infrastructure proposal is several trillion dollars. I mean, this is about modernizing our infrastructure to provide... People think... Don't think of infrastructure as the water." 82

LaToya Cantrell

Neutral
00:08:50-00:08:51 (1 sec)
"Correct." 83

Joe Biden

Neutral
00:08:51-00:09:00 (9 sec)
"If you don't have the water 10 years from now that is needed and the purity is needed, your whole city..." 84

LaToya Cantrell

Neutral
00:09:00-00:09:01 (1 sec)
"That's right." 85

Joe Biden

Leans Positive
00:09:01-00:09:23 (22 sec)
"Is -- Is in real trouble and it's going to affect everything in the health and the viability of the city. And so, when I talk about the human cost of this, I think I have some... I have trouble, uh, convincing some of my friends on the other side of the aisle that this is... That infrastructure is all about making life livable for ordinary people." 86

LaToya Cantrell

Positive
00:09:23-00:09:24 ( sec)
"Yes." 87

Joe Biden

Neutral
00:09:24-00:09:32 (9 sec)
"And this is the most basic thing. I've been focusing on dealing with, uh, for example, there's, as you know, 10 million homes with lead pipes still --" 88

LaToya Cantrell

Neutral
00:09:32-00:09:33 (1 sec)
"Absolutely." 89

Joe Biden

Leans Positive
00:09:33-00:09:52 (19 sec)
"-- still going, and you got 400,000 schools and daycare centers and... that still have lead pipes feeding them. And, uh, I know here in your city, like most, you've been able to get rid of the lead pipes up to the property line, but from the property line on, it's been, uh... You haven't been able to do that." 90

Joe Biden

Slightly Positive
00:09:52-00:10:03 (11 sec)
"We could do that. This proposal I have would allow you to be able to, with a 80/20 match, be able to have every one of the homes that still have --" 91

Joe Biden

Very Positive
00:10:03-00:10:14 (11 sec)
"-- the pipe... lead pipe going from the street, or the corner, to their property done, and it creates thousands and thousands of jobs and generates economic growth." 92

Ghassan Korban

Neutral
00:10:14-00:10:27 (13 sec)
"Absolutely, absolutely. We, we are 100% aligned with that priority and we're, you know, anx --" 93

Note

Neutral
00:10:27-00:10:27 ( sec)
"[Break in video feed]" 94

Joe Biden

Somewhat Negative
00:10:27-00:10:48 (21 sec)
"-- before, when the press is not all here. They... although, they could hear it. The epiphany for me about water and being below sea level, et cetera was when I brought my daughter down here as a freshman to Tulane University just before the mess of K -- Katrina. And I remember the last thing that... And, Mayor Landrieu was mayor then." 95

Joe Biden

Negative
00:10:48-00:11:23 (35 sec)
"He was being very nice to me, and I remember him saying to me, he said, Now, look, Joe, Senator, if there's ever any problem, your daughter can evacuate with me." And I'm thinking, "What the hell is he talking about?" And then, they had a facil -- They had all the parents cone to the stage, the big auditorium, and they had someone, it must've been from here, or I don't where they were from, experts like y'all, come and explain that if you hear that there's a hurricane heading down here and your daughter says she's getting on a plane and flying somewhere, just give her the money." 96

Joe Biden

Very Positive
00:11:23-00:11:39 (16 sec)
"Get out of town. And when Katrina hit, we were down here, and afterwards to try to help. I mean, it was... It w -- It just blew my mind how, how consequential what you have to do here is. And, one of the reasons for this, and I'm not trying to sell you on anything, but one of the things is that I'd like you to think about for me, if you had a wishlist, I don't mean today, what would it be?" 97

Joe Biden

Very Positive
00:11:39-00:11:52 (14 sec)
"A trilling dollars, because it will create an enormous number of jobs, solidify the security and safety of the American people on a whole range of things from bridges to, to water, and put us into a different category than we are now. We're, we're so far behind the eight ball in terms of having a modern infrastructure." 98

LaToya Cantrell

Very Negative
00:11:52-00:12:00 (8 sec)
"So far behind. No doubt about it." 99

Joe Biden

Somewhat Positive
00:12:00-00:12:11 (10 sec)
"We used to lead the world. But I'm d -- I'm desperately committed to getting this done, so when I ask these question, I'm not just trying to be, you know, make you feel better. I just really need to know down the li -- I know we gotta go." 100

Ghassan Korban

Slightly Positive
00:12:11-00:12:11 ( sec)
"Yeah." 101

Joe Biden

Neutral
00:12:11-00:12:12 (1 sec)
"I know that." 102

Christy Harowski

Neutral
00:12:12-00:12:14 (2 sec)
"Let's walk and talk too. We have a little bit of a --" 103

Ghassan Korban

Slightly Negative
00:12:14-00:12:16 (3 sec)
"I, I know. I think we had the fourth, fourth stop, so I don't know, maybe we can answer --" 104

Joe Biden

Slightly Positive
00:12:16-00:12:17 ( sec)
"Okay." 105

Ghassan Korban

Neutral
00:12:17-00:12:18 (1 sec)
"-- of these questions." 106

Joe Biden

Somewhat Positive
00:12:18-00:12:18 ( sec)
"Thank you." 107

Ramsey Green

Somewhat Positive
00:12:18-00:12:19 (1 sec)
"Thank you, Mayor." 108

LaToya Cantrell

Somewhat Positive
00:12:19-00:12:20 (1 sec)
"Thank you, Ramsey." 109

Ramsey Green

Somewhat Positive
00:12:20-00:12:21 (1 sec)
"Thank you, Mr. President." 110

Joe Biden

Positive
00:12:21-00:12:23 (2 sec)
"Okay, rai -- You're gonna raise my microphone, okay." 111

LaToya Cantrell

Neutral
00:12:23-00:12:25 (3 sec)
"And we've also provided detailed information in terms of cost." 112

Christy Harowski

Very Positive
00:12:25-00:12:28 (3 sec)
"[Inaudible] It's a little bit loud, I feel like, if you're gonna talk, but we're gonna do our best, and you're --" 113

Joe Biden

Neutral
00:12:28-00:12:28 ( sec)
"All right." 114

Christy Harowski

Leans Negative
00:12:28-00:12:30 (2 sec)
"-- gonna be [Inaudible], and you see the hard work for 28 years." 115

Joe Biden

Slightly Positive
00:12:30-00:12:31 ( sec)
"Okay." 116

Christy Harowski

Slightly Positive
00:12:31-00:12:31 ( sec)
"Okay?" 117

LaToya Cantrell

Neutral
00:12:31-00:12:31 (1 sec)
"So this is an example of federal money at work." 118

Christy Harowski

Slightly Positive
00:12:31-00:12:35 (3 sec)
"Okay, Mr. President, you're here on the blue mark. Madam Mayor, you're here on the green mark." 119

Joe Biden

Neutral
00:12:35-00:12:35 (1 sec)
"Hello, hello, hello." 120

Note

Neutral
00:12:35-00:12:35 ( sec)
"[Break in video feed]" 121

Unidentified

Neutral
00:12:35-00:12:37 (2 sec)
"I thought the mayor was behind us." 122

Christy Harowski

Neutral
00:12:37-00:12:39 (2 sec)
"[Inaudible] Chad Lavoie as the head of our water purification center." 123

Chad Lavoie

Very Positive
00:12:39-00:13:10 (31 sec)
"Good afternoon, Mr. President, Madam Mayor, welcome to our Carrollton Water Tower. Uh, this water tower is one of two water towers, two identical water towers, that are 200 feet tall, they were built in 2018 and 2019 here at the [Inaudible] Water Treatment Plant as part of a FEMA Hazard Mitigation Program to improve the stability and reliability of our water distribution system here in the city of New Orleans." 124

Chad Lavoie

Neutral
00:13:10-00:13:13 (3 sec)
"The total cost of both of these water towers was $40 million, FEMA-funded." 125

Joe Biden

Neutral
00:13:13-00:13:13 (1 sec)
"How much?" 126

Chad Lavoie

Neutral
00:13:13-00:13:17 (3 sec)
"$40 million for both water towers." 127

LaToya Cantrell

Neutral
00:13:17-00:13:22 (5 sec)
"FEMA-funded?" 128

Chad Lavoie

Slightly Positive
00:13:22-00:14:29 (67 sec)
"FEMA-funded, which is very important. Due to the -- the financial predicament that we were in after Katrina, we could not have built these water towers --" 129

Joe Biden

Neutral
00:14:29-00:14:30 (1 sec)
"I was there, actually --" 130

Chad Lavoie

Neutral
00:14:30-00:14:31 (1 sec)
"-- without federal assistance." 131

Joe Biden

Neutral
00:14:31-00:14:32 (1 sec)
"I was here then." 132

Chad Lavoie

Positive
00:14:32-00:14:53 (21 sec)
"Yeah. So, we're, right now, we're standing inside the support column for the -- the Clayborn Water Tower. This water tower holds two million gallons of water in a tank 120 feet above us. Uh, now two million gallons might sound like a lot of water, but it's only enough to supply the city of New Orleans for about 20 minutes." 133

Chad Lavoie

Leans Positive
00:14:53-00:15:22 (29 sec)
"So the real value of this water tower isn't water storage, what this water tower does for us is helps maintain pressure in our distribution system when we have a power outage to the distribution pumps that provide water to the city. And prior to these towers, whenever we had a power outage at this plant, we would lose power to our distribution plant [Inaudible]." 134

Joe Biden

Neutral
00:15:22-00:15:27 (5 sec)
"Taking up collection." 135

Unidentified

Neutral
00:15:27-00:15:28 (2 sec)
"What are we collecting money for?" 136

Joe Biden

Neutral
00:15:28-00:15:29 (1 sec)
"Water." 137

Note

Neutral
00:15:29-00:15:29 ( sec)
"[Break in video feed]" 138

Ron Spooner

Very Positive
00:15:29-00:15:50 (21 sec)
"You doin -- you doing fine sir. It's cool. All right, this project, firstly I want to say welcome to the wonderful city of New Orleans. It's a pleasure to be here. And mam, madam, madam uh mayor, welcome back to the City of New Orleans. Mr. President, uh I just want to show you, this is our Claibourne Avenue Pumping Station." 139

Ron Spooner

Positive
00:15:50-00:16:07 (17 sec)
"Our executive director may have indi -- may have indicated there were three phases of it. So here we're gonna have two phases. One is the water purification, that's behind us where we generate, we can treat up to a 136 million gallons of water a day. And it's, and the third component is what you see right here, it's our pumping system." 140

Ron Spooner

Slightly Positive
00:16:07-00:16:31 (24 sec)
"So, this, this, Claibourne Pumping Station and what we say is our new, our younger pumping station. This station was constructed in 1958. Our other uh, pumping station and, well filter gallery, was in the 1920s. So we're gonna focus here on our Claibourne Pumping Station. So what we're doing is modernizing our pumping station based upon a thorough funding that we received in the Housing Mitigation Program." 141

Ron Spooner

Very Positive
00:16:31-00:16:49 (18 sec)
"And that's associated with our Water Ham -- Water Hammer Program. That overall programs consist of three phases approximately to the value on a hundred, a hundred million dollars. [Inaudible] tried to explain. The first phase we completed was the water target valued at about $40 million. This is the second phase, right at $36 million." 142

Ron Spooner

Neutral
00:16:49-00:17:12 (22 sec)
"The third phase will kick off this summer to, to complete the $100 million phase. But the second phase is really pumps, systems, upgrading our old pumps from the 1950s. This is a new motor that's coming in sir. You come in here. This is, we using the casing of the existing motors from the 50's. Retrofitted, lined it, but we gonna have new pumping powers in there." 143

Ron Spooner

Slightly Negative
00:17:12-00:17:20 (9 sec)
"As you can see there's new controls that we gonna go there. Up above you there's no electrical system. This will give us reliability, redundancy and get us in that control for automations." 144

Joe Biden

Somewhat Positive
00:17:20-00:17:23 (2 sec)
"I was going to say they look like the old pumps." 145

Ron Spooner

Very Positive
00:17:23-00:17:25 (2 sec)
"Yes sir, they are def -- definitely old pumps, beefy old pumps." 146

Joe Biden

Slightly Positive
00:17:25-00:17:35 (10 sec)
"I see what you doing now. I was wondering because, this New Castle County, Wellington, where I'm from, long time ago and that looked like the old, anyway, sorry." 147

Ron Spooner

Leans Negative
00:17:35-00:17:44 (8 sec)
"N -- no, sir, you right. That is the casing. So what we doing is we gutted the casing, sandblasted it, put a liner in it, but we did, did [Inaudible]." 148

Joe Biden

Slightly Positive
00:17:44-00:17:45 (1 sec)
"Yeah, got it." 149

Ron Spooner

Very Positive
00:17:45-00:18:06 (22 sec)
"So, but that's what that thorough funding would do for us. Reliability, we using that funding, that we using that funding wisely. So, and as you follow me we gonna go on the other half. Part of it is we can do one half at a time. So we have the other half operational, while we fix this and outside you can't see, but over there we also inputting new valves." 150

Ron Spooner

Neutral
00:18:06-00:18:14 (8 sec)
"Metered slow controlled valve. We putting new piping on either floors. That's all part of that funding. So, so if you'll just follow me, watch your step and take your time." 151

Joe Biden

Neutral
00:18:14-00:18:15 (1 sec)
"I will." 152

Ron Spooner

Positive
00:18:15-00:18:16 (1 sec)
"Yes sir." 153

LaToya Cantrell

Neutral
00:18:16-00:18:19 (3 sec)
"Putting in more redundancy than we've had in decades." 154

Joe Biden

Neutral
00:18:19-00:18:20 (1 sec)
"I can see that." 155

Note

Neutral
00:18:20-00:18:20 ( sec)
"[Break in video feed]" 156

Christy Harowski

Neutral
00:18:20-00:18:25 (5 sec)
"Right here for me. And this is Kaitlin Tamnyk setting up our power modernization." 157

Joe Biden

Neutral
00:18:25-00:18:25 ( sec)
"Hey, Kaitlin." 158

Kaitlin Tamryk

Neutral
00:18:25-00:18:26 (1 sec)
"Hello." 159

Joe Biden

Neutral
00:18:26-00:18:29 (3 sec)
"How are you?" 160

Kaitlin Tamryk

Positive
00:18:29-00:18:31 (2 sec)
"Very good to meet you." 161

Joe Biden

Very Positive
00:18:31-00:18:33 (2 sec)
"Pleasure to meet you." 162

Kaitlin Tamryk

Positive
00:18:33-00:18:36 (3 sec)
"Welcome, Mr. President and Madam Mayor." 163

LaToya Cantrell

Somewhat Positive
00:18:36-00:18:37 (1 sec)
"Thank you for all you do." 164

Kaitlin Tamryk

Neutral
00:18:37-00:19:00 (23 sec)
"We are so pleased to have you here in our powerhouse. More specifically, we are standing in our boiler room. What we do here is we make the steam needed to turn our turbines, which power our pumps for the drinking water and the storm water, which I know you've already heard about. So those pumps and these facilities were originally installed in the early 1900s. So that means that they use old technology of 25-hertz power." 165

Kaitlin Tamryk

Somewhat Positive
00:19:00-00:19:25 (25 sec)
"And so for well over 100 years, we have been continuously making our own power that we need to run our pumps in our system. So, standing here behind me are three of our six boilers. And we call this the new side of the house because it was installed in the late, the late 1940s. So, of course, there have been some upgrades and some improvements since that time." 166

Kaitlin Tamryk

Neutral
00:19:25-00:19:43 (18 sec)
"We no longer burn coal. We burn natural gas. And, um... But unfortunately, these facilities just aren't as efficient and, uh, safe as they once were. So through our power master plan, we have elected to change our operating model from generator of our power to purchasing power directly from the electric transmission grid, which is more reliable." 167

Kaitlin Tamryk

Very Positive
00:19:43-00:20:25 (41 sec)
"In addition to that, we would have a fully-redone dish back-up power plant to which more modern, robust and reliable equipment. So it is our vision that within the next five years, these facilities here will no longer be needed. We will retrain all of our staff to operate the system. We will have significantly cut down our carbon emissions, and we will have made, uh, better working conditions for our workers overall." 168

Joe Biden

Neutral
00:20:25-00:20:26 (1 sec)
"Will this be cleared out?" 169

Kaitlin Tamryk

Neutral
00:20:26-00:20:29 (3 sec)
"Um, this [Inaudible] will not be needed anymore. " 170