Tulane University said in a statement on Friday, Oct. 6, that a new timeline from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers from Thursday showed that the saltwater intrusion is not predicted to reach New Orleans’ drinking water until late November and “may not reach it at all.”

Better than expected river flows from last month are causing the delay, officials said.

The saltwater wedge is also moving slower than predicted. 

The new projection says that saltwater could reach the Algiers, New Orleans water treatment around Nov. 23, and the Carrollton, New Orleans plant has the potential for no impact at all. 

The Carrollton plant usually yields around 135 million gallons of finished water daily for the east bank of Orleans Parish. The Algiers plant mostly serves the west bank portion of the Orleans Parish. The two plants treat 54 billion gallons of water annually and remove 18,000 tons of solid material from water from the Mississippi River.