T’bonne officials look to improve holding basin

The foul smelling air coming from the Southdown No. 2 holding basin near Valhi Boulevard and South Hollywood Road that has been plaguing the nearby residents might finally be remedied, according to parish officials.

“I have called Terrebonne Parish Consolidated Government and the Department of Health and Hospitals to complain about the awful smell of raw sewage emanating from this pit for years now,” Anna Drive resident Artie Angeron wrote to Terrebonne Parish President Michel Claudet.

The basin, according to Pollution Control Administrator Mike Ordogne, is approximately 30 years old and used to be a treatment facility in the 1970s. Currently, it is a holding pond with 12 pump stations pumping sewage from nearby subdivisions into it. The sewage then gets pumped north to the treatment facility on St. Louis Canal Road.

“The main problem is they don’t have enough volume for all the sewage going into it,” Angeron said. “From what I’m told, raw sewage is being pumped into the pond from an open pipe and the water was low [a few weeks ago], which makes dilution difficult. It’s a concentrated sewer pit so it’s just unbearable.”

Ordogne said part of the problem is dry weather conditions that cause the water level to sink below the four aerators in the pond, which add oxygen to the wastewater.

“Odor is not a constant problem, it is a periodical problem when dry weather and wind direction presents itself,” he said.

But the parish has a few ideas in the works to alleviate the smell – some short term and some long term.

“We use sodium hyper-chloride, which is bleach,” Ordogne said. “We put it in the pond with enzymes that will stimulate and eat the bacteria in the pond. It’s not a permanent solution, it masks the odors and you get good results sometimes, and sometimes you don’t.”

Angeron called the bleach method a “band-aid” fix, and hopes to see better management of the basin.

“It has to be dredged, and it’s in the plans to have it done,” Ordogne said, but noted the dredging would take time, mostly because the solids accumulated in the pond would have to be disposed of according to Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) regulation.

“Maintenance issues are being directed as we speak,” Ordogne continued. “It’s a costly thing to have it dredged and to remove the material in regulation with DEQ.”

In the interim, Ordogne says peroxide will be used on the current basin to alleviate the odor.

“It’s more costly than bleach, but its something we feel we have to do to get relief in that area,” he said, and estimates the peroxide should arrive within a month.

According to Claudet, the parish has $17 million in bonds for various types of upgrades with the existing sewer facility.

“We have projects already in place,” he said. “We have appointed engineers for everything except $2 million and will be getting projects off the ground shortly.”

A long-term solution being discussed among parish officials is the acquisition of a triangle shaped 200-acre piece of land near the current holding basin, which would give the parish an option of moving the holding basin further away from residents to a bigger area.

Ordogne said the acquisition of the land could be a precursor to a new treatment facility, but it is not a budgeted item as of yet.

“What I’m interested is just getting the land, it gives us a lot of options in the parish,” Voisin said, who noted the land could also be used to double the walking and biking paths in the area.

Angeron looks forward to the improvements.

“I’m glad we finally got their attention,” he said.

Artie Angeron and his neighbors have complained repeatedly to parish and state officials because of the smell emanating from Southdown No. 2 holding basin. JENNA FARMER