By MELISSA PEACOCK

LAPLACE – Federal funds signaled the beginning of the planning/design stage of a multimillion dollar sewer regionalization plan in St. John the Baptist Parish. Regionalization, parish officials said, will be done in phases and could take five years or more to complete.

In February, Parish officials announced that the parish received $1 million in direct appropriations from the federal government for a sewer regionalization program. The total cost of the program is estimated at between $25-30 million dollars, Parish President Nickie Monica said.

The goal, he said, is to create “immediate sewer capacity, short-term, and on the long-term, to regionalize the system.”

“We want to consolidate the seven small plants into two state-of-the-art facilities,” Monica said.

In phases, the parish will build two functional plants and will close down the old plants. The consolidation of the plants will start on the East Bank, officials said.

“We have seven treatment plants,” Henry DiFranco, director of Public Works and Utilities, said. “Out of seven, we have two on the East Bank that discharge into Maurepas Swamp. Environmentally it is harder to operate those plants. We have to treat at more stringent levels to meet new federal regulations.”

Officials are anticipating a reduction in Biological Oxygen (BOD) and Total Suspended Solids (TSS) discharged when the new plants are operational. That, DiFranco said, could help St. John meet changing federal guidelines.

“The EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) is considering lowering limits that anyone discharges into the area,” DiFranco said. “The limits would literally be cut in half.”

But changing federal limits are not the only challenges the current system faces. Each plant has to have discharge permits from the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ).

“The other big headache is that you constantly have to monitor permits,” DiFranco said. “If you have only one or two (plants) to monitor discharge, you only need permits for one or two.”

That, he said, could cut down on confusion created by juggling permits for seven different plants.

Plans for the new plants are anticipated by the end of summer, DiFranco said. Final plans and bidding could start as early as September.

During the first construction phase of the project, the East Bank facility will be built in Reserve and the old Belle Point location will close.

Additions to the new plant, slated for the second and third phases of construction, will close the Woodland location (phase 2) and the Garyville location (phase 3).