Ongoing water issues are affecting local businesses and could impact future economic development in Lacassine, according to a local resident who took her concerns to the Jeff Davis Parish Police Jury this week.

Judy Petry highlighted issues with water flow in the small community and its impact on local businesses Wednesday as she addressed police jurors.

“Lacassine is important, it is a vital little community that is growing, but it is having water problems,” Petry said.

Businesses along Hwy. 101 and Frontage Road are having significant issues, according to Petry.

“These issues are not new,” she said. “They’ve been going on for quite a while.”

Bayou Rum distillery was recently closed for two-a-half days resulting in a loss of $125,000 in revenues, she said. Employees were sent home because there were no toilets or water fountains, losing 20 percent of their weekly pay.

Henry’s Travel Plaza, which sees 1,500-2,000 a day, has had water problems for three-and-a-half years, she said.

“There are times they can’t open their bathrooms at all,” she said. “There’s times where their employees have to carry water and manually flush the toilets. There have been times they haven’t been able to operate their restaurant. There has even been times where there has not been enough water to make a pot of coffee.”

The area has already missed out on opportunities for new businesses and economic development, losing more than 500 potential jobs because of the water issues, she said. Other businesses are continuing to look at the area, she said.

“We know there’s a big truck stop coming in just to the north,” she said. “We don’t know where their water is going to come from or how that water flow is going to affect existing businesses.”

“The pity of it is that we got all this business coming here, but even if we were to fix the water pressure today, in two years we’d be right back in the same spot,” Police Juror Bill Labouve said.

The district also does not have enough water to support its three fire trucks, Petry said. The trucks go to Woodlawn to fill up and have agreements with property owners to use their ponds.

She said $10 million, including $1.4 million from the Police Jury, has been appropriated for a full water production and treatment facility in Lacassine.

“We know the money has been appropriated and we understand that the work must be done in phases and they have to go back to the well to get more money,” she said.

Paperwork was recently signed for the first $1 million phase, she said.

Police Jury President Steve Eastman said a cooperative endeavor agreement with Water and Sewer Commission No. 1 says the storage tanks and the booster pump are included in the first phase of the project.

“That’s as far as they would go because if they don’t get the remaining funds, then we are not going to force them to put the well in,” Eastman said, adding that future plans include the well.

The money appropriated by the Police Jury can only apply to the Lacassine area, according to Police Jury legal counsel Lance Person.

Petry said she was told that Lacassine did not need a full facility, that all that was needed was a retention tank and a booster station and that a third well would be put in Thornwell.

“I don’t believe that is what this group (Police Jury) agreed to when you committed your $1.4 million,” she said.

She said there needs to be better communication between the water district and Police Jury.

“At the end of the day, Lacassine needs the improvements if we are going to continue to grow for the future,” she said.