By MOLLY DRYMAN

Staff Reporter

LAPLACE — The St. John Parish Council addressed the public’s concern of the River Road Sewerage Treatment Plant’s smell during their meeting Tuesday night.

Rev. Donald Brown of Reserve announced his concerns, as well as the Reserve residents’ concerns from the smell coming from the plant over the past few weeks.

Brown said the odors from the plant have become deplorable and is affecting the respiratory systems of not only the children, but of the elderly as well.

Council members asked Director of Utilities Ralph Bean for an explanation.

&#8220We were doing maintenance on two of the aeration basins,” Bean said. &#8220We changed out the other two in 2003. The smell that the residents were concerned about happened because of a delay in parts we ordered from China.”

Bean said the smell would not have been a problem if there had been no delay in receiving the parts, but that now the plant is running properly.

Bean also said Councilman Cleveland Farlough had visited the site since then and everything was working the way it was supposed to, with no smell.

Councilman Lester Rainey advised Tuesday night that by the next council meeting on April 11, he wants a full list from Bean of all the possible things that could happen to cause the plant to put off an odor that strong, affecting the residents again.

Bean said every time maintenance is done on the plant, they must contact the Department of Environmental Quality, and that anytime there may be a problem the DEQ is well aware of anything going on at the plant, and have responded to many residents’ complaints.