By ROBIN SHANNON

L’Observateur

RESERVE – Work is under way in Reserve on a more than $3 million expansion project to increase treatment capacity at the Lions water treatment plant.

St. John the Baptist Parish financial advisor Pat McTopy said beginning late last month, contractors from Sealevel Construction of Thibodaux have been on site working the early stages of the expansion project. He said the parish hopes to have the work completed before the end of 2010.

“It has been a smooth process so far, and we hope that it will continue,” McTopy said.

McTopy said the work involves an increase in treatment capacity at the Reserve plant from 3 million gallons per day to 5 million gallons per day. He said Lions has been operating consistently at about 95 percent capacity, and communities typically look to expand at or around the 80 percent threshold.

The expansion will allow the service area of the plant to be enlarged to include a larger area of LaPlace in addition to all of Reserve and Garyville. Parish officials have said this service area expansion will allow the NANO Filtration system in LaPlace to operate under capacity and will alleviate any strain on the water system during peak demands.

“The expansion will provide enough clean water to the east bank of St John to handle the growth of the next 15 years,” McTopy said.

The Lions treatment plant pulls raw water from the Mississippi River and prepares it for public consumption, while the NANO system gets its water from the Ruddock well system. Parish leaders have tried numerous times to secure funding for expansion at Lions. The plant has not seen improvement since at least 1997, according to parish records.

Funding for the expansion work will be taken from the $29.5 million bond issue that was approved in April 2009. The council awarded the $3.6 million contract earlier this year. McTopy said the low bid from Sealevel was about $600,000 less than the early estimated budget of $4.1 million. He said the savings would allow the parish to devote those funds to other needs in the parish water system, including work at the NANO facility or put it toward the onging water tower/tank refurbishment project.