> it doesn't seem to be the 'emergency' that media is trying to make it out as
I haven't seen any exaggerated coverage. If you're seeing the word "emergency" that's because the governor requested a state of emergency and the president approved it.
You're comparing apples and oranges ... Y2K was a know problem, with known trigger conditions, and prescribed remediation steps. The salt water intrusion is a moving target whose remediation steps aren't clear cut.
The most recent estimate has pushed back the timeline for potential water fouling back by over a month and the new estimate put the salt ppm at <250 which is below the EPA's public safety floor.
> I haven't seen any exaggerated coverage. [...]
That might be because you're not from the area and haven't seen the empty shelves of bottled water and the run on water filtering equipment
From a post on /r/neworleans: "In the last event sales of bottled water skyrocketed before the event. Once the salt wedge arrived, sales went down and everyone stopped buying water. Data suggested public didn't view the situation as sufficiently threatening enough to continue buying water."
So it doesn't seem to be the 'emergency' that media is trying to make it out as... Seems like the larger issues are increased heavy metal contamination from the salt and silt relocation affecting the health of the delta and related ecosystems...
The current plan is to ship in fresh water, which is what was done last time, and also there is talk about building a fresh water pipeline in the next 30 days that would extend ~12 miles up river. [2]
[1] current estimate is that current the situation will last ~3 months
[2] https://www.wwltv.com/article/news/local/saltwater-intrusion...