Sugarcane station money in Congress bill

Money appropriated by Congress two weeks ago for the federal Sugarcane Research Laboratory in Houma will be spent on building a headhouse, said Ed Richard, coordinator and research leader at the laboratory.

U.S. Rep. Charlie Melancon (D-Napoleonville) announced on Oct. 7 that he had earmarked $3.65 million for the laboratory in the 2010 Agriculture Appropriations bill.

“The research they do there is groundbreaking for sugar producers,” said Melancon’s spokeswoman Robin Winchell.

The bill still needs to be approved by the Senate and signed by the president to become law.

The headhouse, a large preparation area where plants are processed before being placed in a greenhouse, will be constructed at the laboratory’s new location on Bull Run Road in Schriever.

The laboratory is moving to the new site because it has outgrown the current facility, built in the 1920s and located off La. Highway 311 across from the Terrebonne Parish Main Library. The estimated cost to develop the new site is $30 million, according to Richard.

“Our goal is to have a replacement for the Houma facility,” he said. “Congress is appropriating money a little at a time.”

Melancon had secured $1.9 million in the 2008 Omnibus Appropriations bill for construction at the Bull Run Road site.

Richard said a tall greenhouse for crossing plants and a photoperiod house, used for exposing plants to light, are under construction at the new location.

Phase 1-A of the building project, the two structures are the first to be built at the site and are expected to be completed around Christmas this year. “Because the entire cost is $30 million, Congress is allowing us to build in phases,” Richard said.

A little more than $7 million has been spent on the Bull Run Road site so far, he noted.

“We had enough to construct the crossing house and the photoperiod house,” he said.

In addition to the funds in the 2010 agriculture bill, money left over from last year’s appropriation will help pay to construct the headhouse, which is Phase 1-B of the building project, Richard said.

Phase 2 will involve building additional greenhouses and Phase 3 will see the construction of a new administrative office and major laboratories. The current administrative building dates from 1938.

Richard said with the new facility, the laboratory can triple the number of crosses carried out each year. The new site is needed also because the laboratory is increasingly conducting bioenergy studies.

The 2008 Omnibus Appropriations legislation allocated for the laboratory $1.2 million for research on sugarcane-derived ethanol and high-yield sugarcane.

“For 10 years or so, they’ve been trying to relocate the station to a facility on Bull Run Road,” said Jim Simon, general manager of the American Sugar Cane League, based in Thibodaux. “This appropriation is part of the ongoing effort to continue to try to put together necessary funding to move the complete facility.

“We’re still many years away from having enough money to move the entire research station to the Bull Run Road location. We’ve been working on it for many, many years. We’ve been fortunate enough to get some money. It will benefit the area.”