[StBernard] New Orleans-area sugar refinery mulling own levee

[Westley Annis]

New Orleans-area sugar refinery mulling own levee
NEW ORLEANS, Jan 11 (Reuters) - A major U.S. sugar refinery shut down by
Hurricane Katrina in 2005 is considering constructing a levee of its own to
protect the facility from future storms, the refinery's manager said on
Thursday.

American Sugar Refining Inc.'s Chalmette refinery, situated on the banks of
the Mississippi River in St. Bernard Parish just east of New Orleans, was
swamped with two to five feet of water and shut on August 29, 2005. It 98
days to restart the refinery and all of its equipment had to be replaced.

Plant manager Pete Maraia told Reuters that one of the things the company is
studying is to "put a levee around this plant. It's up for discussion.
There's a lot of issues ... it's been talked about at the highest levels,"
he said.

Maraia said the cost of such a protective barrier would probably range from
$4 million to $5 million.

The proposal is being seriously considered because the company can
ill-afford having the refinery shut again by a weather disaster. The
refinery has elevated some of the equipment in the plant to protect it from
any new flooding.

The refinery has a daily capacity of 6.5 million pounds of sugar. Some 72
percent of what is processed is from Louisiana, with 22 percent from Texas
and the rest from Florida.

Louisiana is the second biggest sugar producer in the United States.
According to the monthly supply/demand report of the U.S. Agriculture
Department, Louisiana is projected to produce 1.42 million short tons of
sugar in 2006/07, up from the hurricane-damaged crop of 1.19 million tons in
2005/06.

Of that total, Maraia believes the Chalmette refinery handles between 1
million and 1.1 million tonnes.

Florida is the top sugar producer in the country, turning out 1.73 million
tons in 2006/07, the USDA said. Texas sugar production stands at 198,000
tons.