Baja St. Martin

Most of you have probably heard that the DNR has given FAS a permit to build a wastewater transfer site on the Belle River levee. I have a copy of the permit approval and to be honest, it makes me ill every time I read it. There is nothing in the approval about all the opposition of the residents, or of the parish.
Possible tanker truck traffic on Hwy. 997 is one of my main concerns and the DNR simply said there are no weight nor speed limits on the road as if that made our worries irrelevant. And they said there was only one camp within 500 feet of the proposed facility so that wasn’t a problem, ignoring all the rest of the homes which would be affected by the heavy traffic. The DNR seems to have major tunnel vision.
The matter is not over by a long shot. Resistance remains keen among residents of Hwy. 997 and our advocates.
And what a slap in the face this DNR approval is to the parish. Pretty much says we (DNR) don’t care what the parish says. That’s an awful threat to the authority of our parish and to any parish when a government [state] agency can simply override their rules and regulations. In truth, it’s frightening! Why do we have laws if they can be ignored by the government?
I do want to say here, that we Belle River-ites want to thank the parish (and a lot of other people) so much for their past, present and future support in this matter. And anything we can do to help them they only need to ask! I don’t know what happens next but I assume FAS still has to get a building permit from the parish and Mr. Guy Cormier, parish president, said long ago that would not happen.
Someone – FAS? – is spending a whole lot of money on this issue. I sometimes wonder if there isn’t a secret backer – maybe a giant company in the background which has lots of money and wants this facility built even more than just FAS? Could there be a silent partner who is just waiting for this to be settled and who might have bigger plans for the location? This is all just my opinion, of course.
We are looking forward to hosting the St. Martin Parish Council on May 19 in our Belle River meeting room. [Ed. Note: those meetings have been rescheduled to May 26.] We’re hoping there will be a little time after the regular agenda for us to express our thanks to the council for all their support.
I get so frustrated when I talk about this FAS/DNR thing. So, I’ll move on. My hummingbirds are still around though in not such large numbers. Maybe three a day now. The purple martins are busy with family. I was so afraid the birdhouses would be destroyed when that awful storm passed a while ago, but they are both still standing.
My house is on pilings over the water and recently I smelled a pretty bad odor wafting upwards. Sometimes a dead fish gets washed under the pilings but usually doesn’t stay there long. This time I not only smelled something rotten I heard an alligator below, croaking now and then. I tried to see what was going on, but didn’t want to crawl under to investigate. I had visions of myself on hands and knees being confronted with an alligator and not able to get away quickly. Anyway, the smell and the ’gator are now both gone, hopefully together.
It’s kind of odd to be sitting in my living room and hearing the grunting noise of an alligator directly below my feet! To be honest, I kept checking on my cat to make sure he was still around! He was! And still is!

Teche News’ Lower St. Martin correspondent, Linda Cooke, can be emailed at lindacooke1939@gmail.com.