By ROBIN SHANNON

L’Observateur

EDGARD – St. John the Baptist Parish will pursue a $5 million loan from the state to help fund construction and installation of an under-the-river water line to link its water treatment plants in Reserve and Edgard, while also helping pay for continued enhancements to the Reserve plant.

The parish council on Tuesday unanimously approved a contract amendment with Environmental Engineering Services of LaPlace that will allow the firm to design and install the pipeline, which will cost an estimated $1.6 million. The pipeline, which will allow Reserve’s Lions treatment plant to send water to the Edgard treatment plant and vice versa, is seen as the best long term solution for providing an alternate water source for the west bank. It also enables the Edgard plant to act as a back-up for Reserve in the event of a malfunction. The Edgard treatment plant has the capacity to produce 800,000 gallons of water per day, which is more than twice as much as what is normally consumes on the west bank.

Parish President Natalie Robottom told the council she would like to use the additional money from the loan to help the parish replace an aging filter bank at the Lions plant with equipment that is more efficient.

Robottom said that even if the parish does not receive the state loan, there is enough funding available to pay for the river crossing, which could take as much as two years to complete because of permitting. The waterline would be buried underground and under the river and would only come to the surface near the both water plants.

At its current state, the Lions treatment plant has the capacity to supply the needs of both the east bank and the west bank in the event of a breakdown at the Edgard plant. When older filters at Lions are brought online, the facility has a capacity of about 5 million gallons per day.

In other action from Tuesday’s meeting, the council approved substantial completion of the Homewood area drainage improvement project in Reserve. The project involved installation of a second drainage pipe and culvert under Airline Highway near Homewood Place and installation of two flap gates to protect neighborhoods south of Airline Highway from tidal flooding. It also moved an existing drainage pump on the Reserve Relief Canal farther north, and added a second pump next to the existing pump.

A few council members offered questions about training for employees working the new pumps at the site. Brian Nunez of Shread-Kuyrkendall and Associates, the designers and engineers on the project, said a team from Florida flew in to walk employees through the troubleshooting process and showed them how to operate the control panels. He also said Louisiana Machinery in Reserve has properly trained technicians who will be available if there are any mechanical malfunctions.

The council also approved a resolution in support of the parish seeking a possible appropriation from the state’s Capital Outlay funding for improvements to the parish courthouse and construction of a new government complex on the east bank. Robottom said the parish is seeking about $1 million to help pay for security improvements at the courthouse in Edgard.