By Cain Madden

The Natchez Democrat

FERRIDAY — When former U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu arrived in office in 1997, a peculiar jar of water was sitting on the desk.

“The jar of Ferriday water Glen McGlothin had famously brought up to Sen. Bennett Johnston’s office in Washington was still on that desk,” Landrieu said. “I remember the early days of being a busy senator trying to find funding for our 64 parishes. I told my staff that in this day and time, we shouldn’t have a town like Ferriday in this situation.

“We had 1,500 files for projects that needed funding around the state, but there was a special place in my office for Ferriday’s water — a golden folder.”

After almost 20 years of federal, state and local effort, Ferriday hosted a ribbon cutting on Tuesday for its new water treatment plant, which will treat ground water instead of surface water.

“With treating the surface water, if the sun is shining, you treat one way,” Ferriday Mayor Gene Allen said. “You treat it another way if it is raining. If the river is up, you treat it differently. If the river is down, you treat it another way.

“Treating ground water, we should be able to provide a very consistent service to the citizens.”

This will also come in handy when it comes to recruiting business and industry, as in the past Allen said the town has lost out in competing for companies because of its inconsistent water.

Concordia Parish Economic Development executive director Heather Malone agreed.

“I believe community development comes before economic development,” Malone said. “But having this resource definitely moves this part of the parish forward in economic development.”

Ferriday town engineer Bryant Hammett said the $6.9 million plant would open in the next few days. He also apologized for the event being hosted at Haney’s Big House instead of the actual treatment plant.

“Rain is the reason we’re not at the plant,” he said. “This is a 19-year journey we have been on to improve the water quality for our citizens.

“It’s been a true effort of people working together, local, state and federal.”

The USDA provided the funding through grants and loans for the plant.

“This is the day that the water buffaloes went away for Ferriday,” said Vernell Wilson-Williams, the USDA Monroe area director for Rural Development. “This is the end result of what happens when communities come together under a shared vision to make something happen.”

Water buffaloes are the big tanks of water that were hauled in by the U.S. National Guard.

Allen said this was a big day for the town, and it’s been the primary focus since he was elected in 2012.

“On my second day of office, I called up the USDA to see if there was still money available,” he said. “When I came into office, I said I wouldn’t stop until this happened. Nobody wants water for Ferriday more than Gene Allen.”

Former town council member Clarence Hymon was present and said he was thrilled to see this day finally come.

“Oh yes, we the citizens need clean water, industry needs it, business needs it, it’s just a good thing,” he said. “That surface water was hard to treat.”

After a year in service, the water plant built in 1988 started to have problems removing manganese, which colored the water. Starting in 1999 the water plant began to shut down and the first boil-water notice was issued. Several more were issued over the years after breaks in the water mains and erosion.

In 2001, the town defaulted on its loan notes, partially due to thefts that the former town clerk and water clerk pleaded guilty to in September 2000. The town borrowed $240,00 to pay the note.

In February 2001, Ferriday asked the federal government to forgive the more than $2 million owed on the old structure so that it could build a new one. The request was denied.

From May 2009 to April 2010, the town was under a 344-day boil water notice while emergency improvements were made to the facility.

In 2014, officials broke ground on the project to switch from surface water from Old River to a ground water tank with the new facility.

It’s been a long time coming, said Landrieu.

“It was a complicated issue, though it should not have taken this long,” she said. “But this is what happens when a community comes together and does what needed to be done to work through this.”

“People talk about what it takes to make this country work — and this is an example of that,” Allen added. “It takes people working together toward a common goal.”