LEONARD GRAY / L’Observateur / June 21, 2000

HAHNVILLE – The last legal battles between St. Charles Parish and thefree-and-clear access to the parish’s two new regional wastewater treatment plants have been cleared.

The St. Charles Parish Council voted Monday to agree to a settlement withAudubon Barges Inc. and its principal, Robin Durant, for property vital tothe outflow of treated wastewater at its newly-built Hahnville plant.

The council also came to terms over clear title to the land on which the Destrehan treatment plant was built prior to the parish buying the land.

Both problem projects were legacies of the Chris Tregre administration, according to Parish President Albert Laque and his public works and sewer director Steven Fall.

In the Durant matter, dating back to the mid-1980s, the parish bought property in the area and approved an ordinance not to expropriate additional property in the future.

The parish later found it needed the land regardless; Durant refused to sell, and cited the ordinance to stave off expropriation.

This placed the parish in the position of having to prove that its own ordinance was unconstitutional and unenforceable, but that was being appealed by Durant and his attorneys in federal court.

To expedite the wastewater plant’s opening and to clear all legal headaches, an agreement was hammered out after months of negotiation.

Audubon Barges agreed to dismiss its appeal in federal court. In exchange,the parish will buy the necessary servitudes for $4,368.67, and also payAudubon an additional $70,631.33 in settlement.Finally, a parish road not being maintained or used publicly but which bisects the Durant property in the Hahnville river batture will be turned over to Durant as his own property.

The council reviewed the terms of the settlement during a brief executive session early in the meeting, then returned to approve the settlement in a 7-1 vote, with Councilwoman Dee Abadie voting no and Councilman Barry Minnich absent.

In the east bank matter for the Destrehan treatment plant, the Tregre administration signed a purchase agreement in April 1998 to allow for immediate start of construction of the plant.

In interviews, Tregre said that was done to hold off threatened fines by the Environment Protection Agency which would have driven the parish into bankruptcy.

In the agreement approved Monday, the parish agreed to buy the 12.84-acresite for $231,120, along with the 1.5-acre railroad crossing area toaccess the area.

“We’re kind of putting the cart before the horse, but that’s the way it was done,” parish attorney Bobby Raymond said.

In the mid-1990s, the EPA mandated new treatment plants to match newly-imposed wastewater regulations. In early 1997, Tregre pushed fora new 5.1-mill property tax to pay for $41 million of sewer systemimprovements.

The improvement were approved by voters with a 65-35 margin in a May 7, 1998 election. Central to the improvements were the two major,centralized sewage treatment plants, then hoped to be operating by the end of December 1999.

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