Colfax community group sues LDEQ over Clean Harbors permit renewal
COLFAX La. (KALB) - The Colfax-based community group called Central Louisiana Coalition for Clean and Healthy Environment (the Coalition) has filed a lawsuit against the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality (LDEQ) for the permit renewal recently granted to Clean Harbors Colfax (CHC).
The lawsuit, filed with the 19th Judicial District Court in East Baton Rouge Parish, claims that LDEQ’s failure to classify a proposed contained burn chamber system at the CHC facility as an incinerator will “allow Clean Harbors to evade protections needed to safeguard human health and the environment.” The Coalition states that LDEQ’s actions are “unlawful and arbitrary.”
Earthjustice, a non-profit environmental law group, is representing the Coalition. It argues that LDEQ used its own discretion in classifying the contained burn chamber system, which is not in line with EPA hazardous waste program standards.
”Under the law, there are minimum requirements that hazardous waste incinerators need to meet, and they can’t go any lower,” said Thein Chau, an associate attorney with Earthjustice. “By classifying this as something else, LDEQ has failed to ensure that Clean Harbors is going to meet those minimum requirements.”
The EPA’s RCRA requirements for equipment labeled miscellaneous units differ from those deemed hazardous waste incinerators. Those requirements include specifics in the chamber system’s design, operation, air monitoring, and response to a potential release of hazardous waste from the unit.
”It’s their job to issue permits for hazardous waste units, but they are not the experts in what the law says and they can get the law wrong,” said Chau. “So, we are going to the court here to tell them, ‘This is a straightforward legal issue.’ LDEQ failed to apply the law correctly despite the clear language here, and because of that, LDEQ has claimed undue discretion they don’t have to call this unit something else and fail to ensure that they’ll meet the minimum requirements.”
Going forward, the Coalition wants the courts to tell LDEQ to reclassify the controlled burn chamber system as an incinerator.
KALB tried to contact LDEQ for comment regarding the lawsuit, but the department did not immediately provide one.
The Coalition’s President, Brenda Vallee, gave KALB the following statement on the lawsuit:
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