Can a Louisiana parish police jury legally own and operate a pug mill to produce road-paving material for its own roads?
Plain-English summary
The Secretary Treasurer of the Sabine Parish Police Jury asked the Louisiana AG whether the parish could legally buy and operate a pug mill, a piece of equipment used to produce oil sand for resurfacing parish roads. The reason for asking: La. R.S. 38:2212(R) prohibits public entities from owning or operating manufacturing facilities or plants that produce or manufacture construction materials.
The AG said the police jury can buy and operate a pug mill. The reasoning turns on a careful reading of the statute. La. R.S. 38:2212(R) reads:
[P]ublic entities are herein prohibited from owning or operating manufacturing facilities or plants that produce or manufacture construction materials.
The AG read this as a prohibition on owning a facility or plant, not a prohibition on owning equipment that happens to produce material as part of its function. A pug mill is a single piece of equipment, not a manufacturing facility or plant. Other items in the same category include cement mixers. A police jury is allowed to own those.
La. R.S. 33:1236 separately authorizes police juries to purchase equipment used to repair or improve roads. That authority covers the pug mill purchase. Operating it to produce oil sand for road overlays falls within the police jury's road-maintenance authority.
The AG applied standard Louisiana statutory-interpretation rules, citing Red Stick Studio Dev., L.L.C. v. State ex rel. Dep't of Econ. Dev. (2011) and M.J. Farms, Ltd. v. Exxon Mobil Corp. (2008) for the proposition that a statute should be read in light of its plain language and the limited scope of its prohibition.
What this means for you
If you are a parish police jury or municipality considering on-site road material production. This opinion clears the road for buying and operating single pieces of equipment (pug mills, cement mixers, asphalt heaters used inside a single piece of equipment) for road maintenance work. The legal line under La. R.S. 38:2212(R) is at building or operating a facility or plant, like a fixed asphalt plant with multiple production units, storage silos, and an organized production process. A standalone unit of equipment is different.
If you are deciding between contracting out road materials versus on-site production. This opinion does not require either choice. It simply confirms that the on-site equipment option is legally available. Cost analysis, equipment maintenance, operator training, and the volume of road work to support a pug-mill purchase all bear on whether the option is worthwhile.
If you are a vendor that supplies construction materials to local governments. La. R.S. 38:2212(R) protects the private-sector role in operating fixed manufacturing facilities. The opinion narrows that protection to actual facilities and plants. Equipment-scale purchases by parishes are not blocked.
If you are a parish attorney sizing up a future equipment purchase. The pug-mill / cement-mixer line is a useful analogy. The next harder question is when a collection of equipment becomes a "plant" or "facility." Look for indicators like a fixed location, storage infrastructure (silos, tanks), a stream of inputs from multiple sources, a continuous production process, and a workforce assigned to running the plant. Without those, the structure looks more like equipment than a facility.
If you are a state legislator interested in the policy boundary. La. R.S. 38:2212(R) was enacted to keep public entities out of the construction materials manufacturing business while preserving their authority to maintain their own infrastructure. The opinion strikes that balance by reading the statute narrowly. If the legislature intends a broader prohibition, an amendment that uses "equipment" language would be necessary.
Common questions
Q: What is a pug mill?
A: A pug mill is a piece of equipment that mixes aggregate materials with a binder (often oil) to produce a paving material called oil sand. The mixed product can be spread on rural roads as a low-cost overlay. Pug mills can be portable (mounted on a trailer) or fixed in place. The opinion treats them as equipment regardless of the configuration, as long as the unit is a single piece of equipment rather than part of a larger facility or plant.
Q: How is a pug mill different from an asphalt plant?
A: An asphalt plant is typically a multi-component industrial facility that mixes aggregate, sand, filler, and asphalt cement using heating drums, storage silos, weighing systems, and conveyor lines, often producing material in commercial volumes for sale or distribution. A pug mill is a single piece of equipment. The AG's reading of La. R.S. 38:2212(R) draws the line between the two.
Q: Can a parish operate an asphalt plant for its own roads under this opinion?
A: Probably not. An asphalt plant looks like the "facility" or "plant" the statute prohibits public entities from owning. The opinion's analysis would treat the multi-component structure differently from a single piece of equipment like a pug mill. Consult counsel for any actual asphalt-plant project.
Q: Does this opinion let a parish sell oil sand produced by its pug mill to other public entities or to private parties?
A: The opinion does not address sale of produced material. The narrow holding is that the parish may buy and operate the equipment for its own road overlays. Producing material for sale would change the analysis under La. R.S. 38:2212(R) and might also implicate the cooperative-endeavor and public-purpose rules in La. Const. art. VII, § 14. Get a separate AG opinion before selling.
Q: What about other rural-road equipment like graders, rollers, and dump trucks?
A: These have always been within police jury authority under La. R.S. 33:1236 (and similar provisions). They produce no manufactured material in the sense the statute targets. The pug mill question was harder only because the equipment produces a road-construction material as part of its function.
Background and statutory framework
Police jury authority over roads. La. R.S. 33:1236 grants police juries broad authority to maintain parish roads, including the authority to purchase equipment for that work.
Limits on public-entity manufacturing. La. R.S. 38:2212(R) prohibits public entities from owning or operating manufacturing facilities or plants that produce or manufacture construction materials. Related provisions in La. R.S. 38:2212 and La. R.S. 38:2212.1 govern public works bidding, with various exemptions and procedures.
Other relevant authority. La. R.S. 33:3681 (referenced in the opinion's caption) addresses additional parish road and bridge authority. The opinion does not separately analyze La. R.S. 33:3681 but lists it as part of the legal context for police jury road work.
Statutory interpretation rules. The AG cited Red Stick Studio Dev., L.L.C. v. State ex rel. Dep't of Econ. Dev., 2010-0193 (La. 1/19/11), 56 So.3d 181, and M.J. Farms, Ltd. v. Exxon Mobil Corp., 2007-2371 (La. 7/1/08), 998 So.2d 16, for general statutory-interpretation principles. The core rule applied here is reading the statute according to its plain language and limiting it to its actual scope.
Sabine Parish factual context. Sabine Parish is in northwestern Louisiana. The parish maintains a network of rural roads and asked about using a pug mill to produce oil sand on-site for overlays, rather than contracting for the material with a private supplier.
Liz Murrill is the Attorney General of Louisiana. Olivia G. Boudreaux signed the opinion as Assistant Attorney General.
Citations and references
Statutes:
- La. R.S. 33:1236 (police jury authority to maintain roads)
- La. R.S. 33:3681 (related parish road and bridge authority)
- La. R.S. 38:2212 (Public Bid Law)
- La. R.S. 38:2212(R) (bar on public-entity manufacturing facilities)
- La. R.S. 38:2212.1 (related bidding provisions)
Cases:
- Red Stick Studio Dev., L.L.C. v. State ex rel. Dep't of Econ. Dev., 2010-0193 (La. 1/19/11), 56 So.3d 181 (statutory interpretation principles)
- M.J. Farms, Ltd. v. Exxon Mobil Corp., 2007-2371 (La. 7/1/08), 998 So.2d 16 (statutory interpretation principles)
Source
- Landing page: https://www.ag.state.la.us/Opinions
- Original PDF: https://www.ag.state.la.us/Opinion/Download/24-0040
Original opinion text
Best-effort transcription from a scanned PDF. Minor errors may remain, the linked PDF is authoritative.
STATE OF LOUISIANA
DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE
OFFICE OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL
P.O. Box 94005
BATON ROUGE, LA 70804-9005
LIZ MURRILL
ATTORNEY GENERAL
May 30, 2024
OPINION 24-0040
80 - Police Juries — Powers & Functions
Mr. William E. Weatherford
Secretary Treasurer
La. R.S. 33:1236
La. R.S. 33:3681
Sabine Parish Police Jury
La. R.S. 38:2212
La. R.S. 38:2212.1
400 Capitol St., Room 101
Many, LA 71449
Sabine Parish Police Jury may legally purchase and operate a pug mill.
Dear Mr. Weatherford:
Our office received your request for an opinion regarding whether the Sabine Parish Police Jury can legally own and operate a pug mill to produce oil sand that would be used to overlay parish roads. You note in your request that La. R.S. 38:2212(R) prohibits public entities from owning or operating manufacturing facilities or plants that produce or manufacture construction materials.
It is the opinion of this office that the Sabine Parish Police Jury may legally purchase and operate a pug mill. While a pug mill may produce road construction materials, it is a single piece of equipment as opposed to a manufacturing facility or plant.
Determining whether La. R.S. 38:2212(R) prevents a public entity from owning and operating a pug mill requires statutory interpretation. The subject statute provides in Subpart R, "[p]ublic entities are herein prohibited from owning or operating manufacturing facilities or plants that produce or manufacture construction materials." Rather than a prohibition on the making of material for use, it is a prohibition against a public entity owning or operating manufacturing facilities or plants.
Thus, while a police jury cannot own a manufacturing facility that produces construction material, it is authorized to purchase equipment, such as cement mixers or pug mills, that used to repair or improve roads as it is granted authority to do in La. R.S. 33:1236. Accordingly, we conclude that Sabine Parish Police Jury may legally purchase and operate a pug mill to produce oil sand for use to overlay parish roads.
OPINION 24-0040
Mr. William E. Weatherford
Page 2
We trust that this opinion of the Attorney General adequately responds to your inquiry. However, if our office can be of further assistance, please do not hesitate to contact us.
With best regards,
LIZ MURRILL
ATTORNEY GENERAL
BY:
Olivia G. Boudreaux
Assistant Attorney General
LM:OGB
[Footnote: The rules of statutory interpretation are well known. See, e.g., Red Stick Studio Dev., L.L.C. v. State ex rel. Dep't of Econ. Dev., 2010-0193 (La. 1/19/11), 56 So.3d 181, 187-88 (quoting M.J. Farms, Ltd. v. Exxon Mobil Corp., 2007-2371 (La. 7/1/08), 998 So.2d 16, 27 (internal citations omitted)).]