Bossier City council adopts water services agreement amid public concerns over secrecy and capacity
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Summary
The council approved an ordinance authorizing the mayor to execute a water services agreement for a project outside the city's current water service area. Public commenters raised concerns about nondisclosure agreements, transparency and whether the system has capacity to serve an expanded population.
Bossier City Council voted Dec. 16 to adopt an ordinance authorizing Mayor Thomas H. Chandler to execute and negotiate a water services agreement with an owner located outside the city's current water service area.
The hearing drew multiple public comments that questioned transparency and technical capacity. Alice Boyer, a resident who gave her address as 5041 Highway 80, Haughton, argued the council was being asked to approve a deal shrouded in secrecy and warned that "secrecy creates suspicion and thereby a lack of trust." She said the city was setting a precedent by using NDAs and urged the council to consider the broader economic impact on local businesses and residents.
Ruth Pope Johnson presented capacity calculations she said were drawn from public materials: "Our current capacity is 50,000,000 gallons per day, and our current expenditure of water resources is at 34,100,000 GPD," she told the council, and cited a prior water-study recommendation that the city set aside $58,000,000 to enhance and maintain water infrastructure through 2050.
Council members pressed staff for operational figures. Mister Rauschenbach reported that "Average daily flow in Motor City is around 13,000,000 gallons per day," and staff reiterated that the city's stated maximum treatment capacity is roughly 50,000,000 gallons per day. Council members emphasized that the ordinance language requires the owner to fund the infrastructure necessary to serve any new development, saying the agreement describes the project as "mutually beneficial" and that the owner "will fund the infrastructure for the city to supply the water."
After discussion, the council voted by voice and the motion carried to adopt the ordinance. Council members and staff noted the project, as described in the ordinance, would not immediately require the city to extend service to all of Bossier Parish and that development-related infrastructure costs would be paid by the project owner.
Next steps: the mayor was authorized to execute the agreement and negotiate details; further technical planning and any capacity upgrades will be addressed as part of subsequent implementation work and project-specific agreements.
