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The heating element removed from Monique Plaisance's water heater in September was disintegrating, streaked with rust and covered in a dry crust. “We're draining the hot water heater every few days to get most, or a good bit, of the salt out of that,” owner Byron Marinovich said. Plaisance's home and Marinovich's restaurant are in the Buras community of rural Plaquemines Parish, roughly 60 miles (about 96 kilometers) southeast of New Orleans and 20 to 30 miles (32 to 48 kilometers) upriver from where the Mississippi flows into the Gulf of Mexico.

Authorities cite multiple factors for the salt water intrusion. Most prominent this year has been a drought across the Midwest that has meant less water flowing into the Mississippi River.

The heating element removed from Monique Plaisance's water heater in September was disintegrating, streaked with rust and covered in a dry crust. She blamed the corrosion on the water piped in from the area's longtime drinking water source: the Mississippi River.

Some Louisiana communities have been without drinking water since June. Climate change and sea level rise makes this more likely.

Salt water moving up the Mississippi River from the Gulf of Mexico is threatening drinking water supplies in and around New Orleans,