Letters: Sewer project too expensive

The mayor-president and the Metro Council have hung a $1.4 billion albatross around the neck of the Baton Rouge homeowners.

It will take 30 years to retire the $1.4 billion bond sale to cover the project’s cost. The present sewer fee to cover payout of the bonds is $41 per month per household. By the time the bonds are retired in 2042 the fee is projected to rise to $83 per month.

This figure is based on a $1.2 billion estimate. The construction cost has now risen to $1.4 billion so the fee could rise to $100 dollars per month.

More and more as the fee rises over the 30-year period, it will cast a shadow over home sales in Baton Rouge. In 2003 under Mayor-President Bobby Simpson, the estimate of $612 million, was considered high; however, it was thought the costly sewer storage tunnel could be eliminated. The plans required the rehabilitation work to be done first, and if successful, the expensive tunnel could be eliminated. Shreveport is doing a similar project for less than $300 million.

In his campaign for mayor-president, “Kip” Holden promised to get the work done for less than the $612 million. However, it did not happen because the mayor-president had plans to enlarge the sewer system to take care of future growth and eliminate the central treatment plant in south Baton Rouge. The extra work increased the project cost nearly $1 billion.

Under the first EPA consent decree, the above work was not necessary. In order to make the plan change, the mayor-president was required to obtain a second consent decree. The EPA approved the plans for the extra work, but were only concerned with the part which dealt with manhole overflows. As far as they were concerned no changes had to be made to the treatment plants.

In view of the eight years of time that have elapsed since the mayor-president took over, an update on the project cost and progress is needed. In my letter to the editor of March 26, it was requested a complete report be made to the taxpayers. No response to my request has been received as of this date.

It’s time for the mayor-president to act on my request.

Jim Atteberry

former DPW assistant chief engineer

Baton Rouge

Comments

1) Comment by phil - 07/07/2012

Chucky: The tax you mentioned must be the sales tax. However, voters do not get to vote on the sewer fees that can go up 4 percent each year forever, and voters cannot stop other increases in those fees. That is all controlled by the government, and people do not get to vote on those fee increases. So basically I think the sewer fees can be increased to any amount and the government can spend whatever they want to on this sewer project as long as they can approve new fee increases. Then we can start talking about derivatives and bond swaps/hedge agreements and who pays if those do not work out the right way. I personally call it gambling with taxpayer funds. Is that what is happening now? That is one main question I think needs to be answered.

2) Comment by phil - 04/07/2012

Personally I think there is a lot more that smells funny with this project other than the actual sewerage. By the way, the total costs are now estimated at more than $1.5 billion.

3) Comment by 8.3 - 04/07/2012

Shreveport has what, 25% of the population of Baton Rouge? That's a lot more excrement. Guess who will be the first to complain when the sewers overflow?

4) Comment by Chucky - 04/07/2012

I voted for this tax years and years ago what has this and other Mayors been doing ?

5) Comment by Bighug - 04/07/2012

Time for a new mayor in Baton Rouge.