Amid mounting public concern over a proposed barge cleaning facility on the Mississippi River near LSU’s intramural fields and BREC’s Farr Park Equestrian Center, the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality has agreed to delay until Aug. 18 a public hearing on the project that was originally scheduled for next week.
As first reported Thursday by Daily Report, Mayor Kip Holden and LSU President King Alexander requested the delay, joining the chorus of environmental activists and those who live near the site of the proposed facility and are concerned about the health hazards it poses.
The barge cleaning facility is being proposed by Port Arthur, Texas-based Tubal-Cain Marine Service and would include a dockside mooring area, two working deck barges with 10 mounted 15,000-gallon storage tanks, as well as a steam boiler, transfer pumps and piping, a truck loading station and enclosed flare. According to the company’s permit application, barges will be emptied at the facility and cleaned, and residual liquids in the barges will be pumped into storage tanks and, eventually, flared.
Environmental groups held a community information session earlier this week to provide concerned residents with as much information as possible about the proposed facility. But Holden and Alexander argued there were still too many unanswered questions to move forward with a permit hearing next week.
The hearing is now scheduled for 6 p.m. on Aug. 18 in the Oliver Pollock room of the LDEQ headquarters at 602 N. 5th St.
—Stephanie Riegel
