St. Tammany council to refer $1.5M DEQ application for sewer studies and septic receiving station

St. Tammany Parish council members spent the bulk of an agenda-review meeting debating Resolution Council Series No. 7273, a request to seek preliminary approval for up to $1.5 million in state revolving funds to study sewer options for unsewered subdivisions and to design a septic receiving station.

The resolution would place the parish on the State Bond Commission list to pursue a $1.5 million ceiling, administration and bond counsel said. "This 1,500,000.0 is not to run that program. It's a it's a separate study that we're gonna be doing on 3 areas, Tammany Hills, Forest Glen, and Ozone Wood subdivisions," said Tim, the utilities presenter at the meeting.

Why it matters: council members said the item could shape whether the parish pursues community sewage in dense, unsewered neighborhoods that currently rely on on-site systems. Administration said the package is primarily for preliminary engineering reports, environmental documents and to design and procure equipment for a septic receiving station to improve pumpouts.

What was said: bond counsel Hardy Andrews told the committee that the action under consideration is a preliminary approval that sets a ceiling for later approvals: "This is a preliminary approval. So what we're doing here is setting the ceiling. The 1 and a half million dollars, the maturity of 22 years, the interest rate, that's all this is is to get the ball rolling because we still have to get SBC approval and do a lot of other things," he said.

Council members questioned the scope and the parish's financial exposure. Councilman Coogel asked about an earlier item that referenced roughly $706,000 and whether a forgiven loan was being used as leverage for new borrowing: "Is the loan, which is now forgiven being used as collateral for another $706,000 loan?" Bond counsel and administration answered that the DEQ program requires issuing loan documents and drawing down the loan, but the forgivable portion is not being used as collateral; the drawdown is generally forgiven as conditions are met.

Members also pressed why the resolution targeted three specific subdivisions rather than conducting a parish-wide study, and whether property owners would be required to pay connection fees if central sewer were built. Administration said the selected areas were chosen because of higher density and that preliminary engineering and environmental work are costly; the receiving-station equipment alone was described as an expensive item (described in committee as roughly a $500,000 piece of equipment).

Procedural outcome: after extended questions, the committee voted to refer Resolution No. 7273 to the full council with a recommendation that the council postpone consideration for one month so staff can provide a white paper with scope, deliverables and a milestone schedule; the motion to refer and recommend postponement passed on a voice vote.

What comes next: staff and committee chairs were asked to prepare detailed scope and deliverables for the full council and for infrastructure/finance committees to review; State Bond Commission timing was noted as potentially delayed by 30–45 days if the referral causes scheduling shifts.