Councilman Doc Satterlee after August 27, 2015 Utilities meeting (with former president Tommy Martinez and two GSA Consulting engineers).
Decades ago Ascension Parish lost control of its water supply to Baton Rouge Water, hamstringing multiple attempts to establish regional sewer treatment in a system steadily worsening with every additional rooftop added to the grid. Bayou Manchac, New River and other waterways increasingly compromised, Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality warned Ascension that wastewater treatment permits would be denied if corrective measures were not taken (that was six-and-a-half years ago). When the Public Service Commission approved the sale of parish wastewater “assets” last week, it was a big deal.
Over the decades, Ascension Parish Government had to take over failed sewer treatment systems which ended up costing tax payers between $2.5-4 million annually (the figures varied wildly from year to year). Unsurprisingly, APG struggled to keep pace and those waterways continued worsening with the prospect of an EPA/DEQ Consent Decree looming larger and larger. Multiple attempts to address the increasingly ominous problem all came to naught as financing intricacies derailed one plan after another…until last week
Getting out of the sewer business, in and of itself, made the deal worth doing, but it came with significant sweeteners.
“A huge, huge victory for us,” is how Parish Council Chase Melancon described the deal and PSC’s approval on Thursday. “We were decades behind in even starting our regional sewer system. I just don’t know, fiscally, if it was ever going to be possible for Ascension Parish to do this on our own.
Parish-President Elect Clint Cointment leads working group toward parish-friendly sewer treatment terms. Councilman-Elect Chase Melancon second from right.
“For NWI to come in here, and be regulated by the Public Service Commission just like every other utility, and bring regional sewer treatment to the Manchac area, coming down Hwy 73 is going to be huge,” Melancon reiterated.
Most recently, beginning a decade ago, parish-owned and operated sewer treatment was the subject of a series of Open House meetings where LDEQ and Louisiana Department of Health predicted the worst. The Parish Council Utilities Committee chairman at the time pushed for consideration of a sewer treatment tax which the voters would have soundly defeated. It was concluded, after former Parish Engineer Bob Horner ran the numbers, that insufficient customers existed to pay for a purely public system.
Then, Modified P-1-6 was attempted. The plan, attempting to coopt all the new rooftops on Hwy 42, turn south onto Airline Hw, and proceed down Hwy 73 to the Mississippi River where a treatment plant would be built, is going to be part of any regional treatment effort because the route includes a concentrated customer base. Legislation (both state and parish) will force customers onto any regional system when sewage lines pass within a set distance of property lines.
At the end of President Tommy Martinez’s last term, in December 2015, the outgoing council voted to negotiate with a consortium called Ascension Environmental.
5-3 Council vote tasks Parish President to negotiate with only sewer respondent
But the incoming administration never bothered to engage in such negotiations, Ascension Environmental and its Public-Private Partnership proposal were mothballed in early 2017. President Kenny Matassa declining to pad the retirement account of his ardent supporter and Ascension Environmental’s go-to-guy (Glen Shaheen)…it made no sense in real time. It was all clarified later in 2017 when Matassa hired William Daniel as the first occupant of a newly-created position, Infrastructure Division Director.
William Daniel (left) with his boss, President Matassa. (October 2017)
Arriving to dazzle Ascension Parish’s peasantry in October 2017, Daniel’s incessant cheerleading for Ascension Sewer, LLC as an unquestioning council chanted along, it appeared that the Jim Bernhard-created consortium was all but a foregone conclusion. The parish would have ponied up $60 million from a DEQ State Revolving Fund loan in addition to eight-figures or so in the Water/Wastewater Construction Fund. If (more like when) Ascension failed to meet the onerous terms of the proposed agreement, the parish would be contractually bound to bond out the debt to Mr. Bernhard.
That bankruptcy plan was derailed when President-Elect Clint Cointment and Councilman-Elect Chase Melancon rallied a skeptical parish citizenry in opposition.
The PEOPLE won on Friday; Sewer deal DENIED, rescheduled for January 23
Another outgoing council, six of its 11 members attending their last meeting on December 20, 2019, Ascension Sewer’s pitch was rejected. Negotiations would resume in 2020 when (now) President Clint Cointment took a hard line against the rebranded, National Water Infrastructure (NWI). When the parish offered up its wastewater treatment “assets” for sale, NWI bit but the agreement was contingent upon voter approval.
That was granted on April 24, 2021. Two months later (July 1, 2021), Ascension’s Parish Council voted to require that all proceeds from the sale be deposited in the Mega-Infrastructure Fund. Two years elapsed before that sale would receive the requisite stamp of approval from Louisiana’s Public Service Commission which came last week. The purchase price, $9.26 million, came as something of a disappoint but that was the appraisal in anticipation of the ballot measure.
What, exactly, is the Mega-Infrastructure Fund? The ordinance directing sewer sale proceeds reads:
“Upon the sale of the East Bank Sewer utility assets, all proceeds from sale will be deposited into the Mega-Infrastructure Fund. The Mega-Infrastructure Fund was created for the purpose of improving the infrastructure and capital assets of the Parish as it relates to transportation, drainage, and recreational needs. As such, the funds of the Mega-Infrastructure Fund shall only be used in the construction of capital assets and infrastructure projects including, but not limited to Recreation Parks, Transportation and for the safety widening of roads, intersection improvements, bridge construction/upgrade, Federal Highway Interchanges, transfer into the Ascension Parish MOVE ASCENSION Program, and Drainage for the dredging of canals, improvement and/or addition of Ascension Parish Levee Protection Systems, or construction of regional detention areas. However, the funds can only be used for construction items considered direct costs such as labor, material, equipment and land which are incorporated into the capital asset or infrastructure. No funds are to be used for professional services, such as engineering services, feasibility studies, architectural services unless such professional services or studies can qualify as matching funds for any project. No funds are to be used for the construction of parish owned buildings designed for administrative functions, salaries of current or future parish employees nor any costs incidental, indirect or general and administrative in nature. The funds may also be used as matching funds to any State or Federal funds for Parish projects which involve construction of capital assets or infrastructure. The funds shall not be moved out of the Mega-Infrastructure Fund without a majority approval of the Ascension Parish Governing Authority.”
Make no mistake, getting out of the sewer business in a manner approved by Louisiana DEQ and the PSC is the hugest aspect of the deal. Receiving $9.26 million and annual franchise fees up to $500,000 sweetens the agreement. The franchise fees have already been allocated to recreation.
Looks like all upside to these tired eyes, and a huge deal, indeed.
Loading ...