Port industrial site drainage in works

Port of West St. Mary commissioners are making improvements to several facets of the district’s properties.
Executive Director David Allain said plans to set up a 24-inch pump to drain the industrial park site on the Charenton Canal are under way. Allain said right-of-way negotiations are ongoing and virtually guaranteed. “We’re hoping this coming week we’ll have all the signatures,” he said.
The pump was already on the site when it was agricultural land before purchased by the City of Franklin and later transferred to the Port of West St. Mary. It has been rehabilited, and Cleco is also obtaining a right-of-way to provide power to the pump at no cost of installation to the port.
“It’s not a lot of right-of-way but its owned by 39 people, and they have to get all the signatures,” legal counsel Eric Duplantis said.
Also Tuesday, Allain said water system operators are still attempting to bring chlorine byproduct levels to standards. “We did do some flushings of the big tank…and we did put an automatic flusher in the Kim Lane area.”
The port’s water system is an industrial-oriented plant, but it also serves a small residential community adjacent to port property. Allain said as adjustments are made to the output it takes weeks to realize the results. The byproduct of the chlorine increased after the Department of Health and Hospitals ordered an increase in chlorine treatment.
“If we can tweak the plant and make it operate properly, that’s what we want to do,” Allain said.
“Just about every water system in our area was having this problem,” engineer Reid Miller noted.
The port is also planning to replace the sign on the former Superior fabrication and services site on the Charenton Canal. The port purchased the property a few years ago and has leased it to a tenant.
The sign is in an awkward location, Allain said, and will have to be removed with a crane after cutting it loose from the mounting system. Then it can be fitted with the new signage and returned to its former position. The cost will be about $13,000.
The site will be the port’s Baldwin Campus facility.