BATON ROUGE, La. (WAFB) - Business owners in Ascension Parish say they’ve noticed a huge increase in their sewage bill as the parish switches over to a new consolidated wastewater system.

“What we’re seeing now is the effects of that consolidation and modernizing the system to be adequately reflect the usage from a residential user versus a commercial user,” Louisiana Public Service Commissioner Davante Lewis said.

Lewis says last year, Ascension Parish residents voted to privatize parts of the parish’s wastewater systems, selling parish government assets to National Water Infrastructure.

The new system created a new rate structure for commercial users. Lewis says in the past, those users paid a fixed rate that was similar to what homeowners pay. It also means that some businesses are n

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