Abita Springs, St. Tammany Parish, LA
Abita Springs Timber Company, LLC (ASTC) plans a new mixed-use development near Interstate 12 in St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana. The land is an 8,000-acre pine plantation that will be converted to a planned, mixed-use development with a research park and 4,000 acres of open space preservation. The project will incorporate up to 6,000 homes as well as approximately 6 million square feet of commercial and institutional space, including industrial, office, and retail development. Lakeshore High School, a newly constructed 1,200 student 5-A high school, opened at the site in the fall of 2009. Plans for future development also include a junior high school, a K-5 elementary school, a satellite college campus, and a state-of-the-art medical facility. A total of 15,000 people are expected to live on the site when it is fully developed.
Natural Systems Utilities has been retained to assist in the development of the project’s integrated wastewater infrastructure including sewage collection, sewage treatment, and sewage reuse and disposal systems and selected Natural Systems International as its strategic partner on the project. NSI developed the water balance and water master plan as well as plans for the wastewater treatment and reuse, and stormwater management systems. Capital and operations and maintenance costs were compared for NSU’s technologies vs. conventional systems for wastewater collection, wastewater treatment, and reclaimed water reuse/disposal systems. NSU’s planning report outlines the basic components of the wastewater infrastructure that will service the project, including conceptual-level opinions of probable cost, treatment footprints, and collection system mainline sizing.
NSU’s proposed collection system would represent a savings of more than $27 million when compared to conventional sewer systems. In addition, operating costs savings over the 20 year life-cycle comparison will be nearly $19 million. And because the NSU’s system is energy efficient, the system saves about 1250 tons of atmospheric carbon during the 20-year life cycle.