Five years have elapsed since voters approved the sale of Ascension’s “wastewater utility system…and grant franchises to operate same to National Water Infrastructure (NWI).” Last week a unanimous Parish Council resolved to execute an agreement with East Ascension Drainage Commission (EAD) to expedite the ” in the planning, acquiring and/or improving public projects, and providing supervisory support and other assistance for various public projects, including, but not limited to, the creation of a regional sewerage collection and treatment system” to be operated by NWI. The company will, we are told, construct its treatment plant on Ashland Road discharging treated effluent into the Mississippi River nearly a mile away.
Location of that plant has been a contentious topic for more than a decade, going back to the parish’s initial attempts an ill-fated Public-Private Partnership (anybody remember Ascension Environmental?).
“We’ve come to an agreement that whenever they need to utilize the Quick Take method (of expropriation) that the parish has the authority to use, (NWI) will reach out to the Council Chairman, the Chairman of (EAD), and the Parish President to sign off,” explained Council Chairman Chase Melancon on Thursday.
As a public utility, NWI already enjoys rights of eminent domain expropriation. Louisiana law empowers municipalities take possession of private property for public purposes before finalizing compensation to the property owner via “quick-take” pursuant to Revise Statutes 48:441-460.
The agreement cites numerous justifications for the project which will:
- Consolidate 80 separate collection systems and 70 individually permitted wastewater plants, serving approximately 8,304 residential-equivalent customers into a centralized system with a single point of discharge into the Mississippi River. This will entail the construction of a Regional Collection System and a Central Treatment Plant;
- Result in the removal of approximately 3.3 MGD of sewer effluent alone from the impaired waterways of Ascension Parish, with approximately 2.4 MGD of effluent being removed from the Bayou Manchac watershed and its tributaries;
- Provide increased environmental permitting compliance with a resultant avoidance of costs to upgrade the existing system;
- Increase drainage and flood control (hence, EAD’s inclusion);
- Construct enhanced infrastructure for development purposes;
- Supply environmentally beneficial impacts on the waterways of Ascension Parish;
- Enhance sewerage services;
- Increase the ability of the Parish to participate in the State’s water credit trading program; and
- Decrease the potential for loss of federal funding due to non-compliance with environmental regulations
“Project will be constructed within existing rights-of-way where practicable, it is anticipated that additional right-of-way will be required due to larger trunklines and distributions mains. Temporary workspace and lay-down yards will also be likely to be needed. Thus, servitudes will need to be acquired adjacent to the existing rights-of-way.
Neither the (EAD) nor the Parish are anticipated to expend any funds for the construction of the Project. NWI is funding all costs and expenses relative to the Project, including the acquisition of property rights necessary for same.”
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