Police Jury to assist ASA with infrastructure needs

Rapides Parish officials want to do their part to facilitate location of the American Specialty Alloys plant to a site near Pineville.

Police jurors on Monday authorized President Richard Billings to work with grant consultants, engineers, bond attorneys and special legal counsel to assist ASA in meeting infrastructure needs.

The $2.4 billion plant, which will manufacture aluminum alloy for the automotive and aerospace industries, will be built at the former International Paper mill site near Pineville. It is expected to employ more than 1,400 people and generate an additional 2,600 indirect jobs.

Construction is expected to be completed in 2020.

Billings, noting the plant will not be inside a municipality, said, "We find it our obligation to do what we can possibly do to not only expedite it, but to make sure it's done" as far as infrastructure is concerned.

Jurors were meeting in committee on Monday, so the authorization for Billings to take action will come up for a final vote at the full jury meeting next Monday.

The motion is to give Billings permission to work toward "preparation of various grant applications and other legislatively created financing opportunities" to assist ASA.

It said the help would be for infrastructure needs "including but not limited to roads, water, sewer, rail and port access which may require the creation of special districts."

Shortly before the jury voted to support the ASA project, Agnes Francisco of Alexandria addressed jurors, expressing environmental concerns about two creosote plants in the parish and saying the ASA plant will need to be monitored for air quality when it opens.

Francisco, who is with the Alexandria/Pineville Community Focus Project, was accompanied by about 40 residents concerned about pollution. She said retired Lt. Gen. Russel Honore, who heads the pro-environmental GreenARMY, had planned to attend the jury meeting with her, but an urgent family matter arose.

She said she was speaking on behalf of citizens concerned about "the contaminants of creosote, which has caused excessive, very excessive health problems."

The two plants she said are causing problems are the Stella Jones Facility, formerly Dura-Wood, and Kisatchie Treating, formerly Colfax.

She said research by the federal Environmental Protection Agency and the state Department of Environmental Quality shows that there are toxins at Frank O. Hunter Park on Willow Glen River Road, not far from the Stella Jones Facility.

One toxin at the park is 7.6 higher than the national average for that toxin in residential neighborhoods, Francisco said.

"Hunter Park should not have this building there (nearby) because if it (a pollutant) drips into their ditch and it rains, storms, it's in the soil. Everyone knows this. No one wants to say anything," Francisco said.

She said EPA and DEQ "have determined these areas are deeply contaminated." She said the pollution has caused health issues such as respiratory and reproductive problems as well as cancer.

Juror Ollie Overton asked Francisco if she had approached the city of Alexandria about the Stella Jones Facility.

She said she will seek to address the City Council when Honore is available to accompany her.

Francisco said the EPA will be conducting further air, water and soil testing near the creosote plants to determine pollution levels.

Billings said he's confident the EPA will conduct the necessary tests for pollution and "will be on top of it" if action is needed to resolve issues.

He also said the ASA plant will meet all EPA standards.