Tank will be used at Reserve sewer plant

By BEN LUNDIN

Staff Reporter

LAPLACE – The St. John Parish Council unanimously rejected the only bid on an elevated water tank for the future Reserve sewer treatment plant on Tuesday.

The tank, which will provide storage of 500,000 gallons of water, is intended to help replace water lost during filtration.

One million gallons of water will be lost each day because of the plant’s NANO filtration system, which removes minerals and other impurities. To counter the loss of water, parish engineers plan to have two elevated storage tanks in Ruddock that will be filled between 2 a.m. and 4 a.m., when parish water use is low, to ensure the area has 10 million gallons available at all times.

St. John Parish received only one bid on the tank, for $1,368,000 from Caldwell Tanks. The council rejected the bid in response to suggestions by St. John Parish Engineer Chuck Savoie that the cost should be closer to $1 million and the council will receive a more reasonable offer if it waits for more bids.

The council plans to re-advertise for the tank. The second tank will go up for bid when the funds become available.

The Reserve sewer treatment plant is slated to be completed in two years.

Savoie was unavailable for comment on whether the bid rejection would delay the construction of the plant.

In other business, the council unanimously passed a motion to approve issuance of $2.5 billion in bonds under the Gulf Opportunity Fund to expand Marathon Oil’s Garyville refinery.

The expansion will in effect build an additional refinery, Parish President Nickie Monica said.

Following the expansion’s approval, the council agreed to ask Congress to expand its Gulf Opportunity Fund Act, a federally backed and state-run program which provides tax-exempt, low-interest bonds that the parish is not liable for.

The Act was instituted by Congress in response to Hurricane Katrina, and provides eligibility for St. John Parish through 2010. Other Louisiana parishes that suffered worse damage will be eligible for a longer period of time.

The bonds would support Marathon Oil’s growth, and could help the refinery become the fourth largest in the country.