According to ICIS,A Louisiana firm received clearance this week to build three 50,000-gal caustic soda tanks at its storage facility near New Orleans. City officials in Westwego, Louisiana, granted permission earlier this week for Blackwater New Orleans to build the tanks at its 850,000/bbl terminal there, said Westwego city attorney Joel Levy. Blackwater recently signed a five-year, $8m (€5.4m) lease to store sodium hydroxide solution - the chemical term for caustic soda - in the three tanks, Levy said. The permit issued by Westwego's city council requires Blackwater to notify the city if it changes the chemicals stored in the proposed tanks. Westwego is on the west bank of the Mississippi river, across from New Orleans. Blackwater New Orleans is an independent third-party bulk liquid storage provider for chemical and petroleum product distributors in or near the port of New Orleans, according to the company's website. The company's chief executive, Michael Suder, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.