July 2011 – BSW Environmental Blog

The First Circuit upheld a permit to an existing solid waste facility.

Basic Facts

Harrelson Materials Management, Inc. operated a Type III solid waste landfill near the City of Shreveport. The facility had operated in that location since the later 1980s and received an initial Order to Upgrade in 1994. Its original permit application, submitted in 1995, stated that the total area of the facility was 29.86 acres. The local zoning authority confirmed in 1998 that the facility had a non-conforming use under local zoning ordinances, allowing it to operate within that acreage as a solid waste landfill.

In 2004, a revised application was submitted in which the total acres for which the permit was requested was increased to about 75 acres. LDEQ issued a series of notices of deficiencies, essentially requesting that Harrelson provide proof that the entire 75 acres had been approved by the local zoning authority. When Harrelson did not, or could not, LDEQ denied the revised application and rescinded the Order to Upgrade. Thereafter, in 2007, Harrelson submitted another application limiting the scope of the permit request to the original 29.86 acres (which had received non-conforming use approval in 1998).

LDEQ, after public notice and a comment period, issued a standard permit to Harrelson. LEAN filed a petition for review of the permit. Continue reading “In re: Harrelson Materials Management, Inc., 2010-1950 (La. App. 1 Cir. 6/10/11)” →

The First Circuit held that LDEQ issued a general permit in a procedural fashion without individualized consideration or a fair balancing of environmental factors.

Basic Facts

LDEQ reissued an NPDES general permit for discharges of pollutants from oil and gas production into the territorial seas of Louisiana as an LPDES general permit. The LPDES general permit governs discharges of deck drainage, produced water, sanitary wastewater, and other such discharges from facilities into the territorial seas from exploration, development, and production facilities.

The original NPDES general permit was issued in 1997 and expired in 2002 but was administratively continued by LDEQ pending its review of the application for renewal. In responding to public comments and in its Basis for Decision, LDEQ noted that the provisions in the draft general permit were developed primarily using the federal effluent guidelines for the offshore sub-category of the oil and gas extraction point source category and that an Environmental Impact Statement concluded in 1996 that discharges under the NPDES general permit would not cause cumulative impacts. Continue reading “In re: Oil & Gas Exploration, Development & Production Facilities Permit, No. LAG260000, 2010-1640 (La. App. 1 Cir. 6/10/11), 2011 WL 2297790” →