The Ascension Parish Council voted Thursday night to enter into negotiations with Ascension Sewer—a new company created by private equity firm Bernhard Capital Partners—to develop a new sewer system for the rapidly growing parish.
Though the measure approved by the council gives the BCP company up to two years to negotiate a deal, Ascension Parish Public Works Director William Daniel expects the firm will work out an agreement with the parish within 90 days.
“In the meantime, we will be holding public hearings, meeting with stakeholders, and developing a plan,” says Daniel, who has been pushing to create the public-private partnership with BCP. “The goal is to find out what the public wants and for the process to be completely transparent in developing the plan.”
As envisioned, Ascension Sewer will enter into a cooperative endeavor agreement with the parish to build out new wastewater treatment infrastructure and take over management of the system for the next 30 years. The parish will maintain ownership of the infrastructure and the customers.
As part of the deal, Ascension Sewer will acquire the largest private wastewater treatment provider in the parish—Ascension Wastewater Treatment—that serves nearly 16,000 households. It plans to combine that customer base with the roughly 3,000 households served by the public system, Ascension Consolidated Sewer District No. 2, and will eventually tie into individual and small-scale, private treatment systems that serve thousands of other households throughout the parish.
BCP has said Ascension Sewer will invest some $225 million developing the first phase of the system alone, consisting of a new sewer treatment plant on the Mississippi River as well as the buildout of a network of sewer lines along state highways 73 and 42.
The proposed site of the new treatment facility has not be disclosed and BCP officials say they are still in the process of acquiring the property. But it will be located in an industrially zoned area away from neighborhoods and businesses and the treated discharge will go into the river.
Once a deal between Ascension Sewer and the parish has been worked out, the deal will go before the council for final approval.
