St. Martin seeks ways to challenge FAS

St Martin Parish leaders are examining what legal action the parish can take now that state regulators have approved a waste transfer station in Belle River, even though the station violates parish zoning rules, St. Martin Parish President Guy Cormier said .
FAS Environmental Services received approval May 7 from the Louisiana Department of Natural Resources’ Office of Conservation to build a commercial exploration and production waste transfer station. It will be located on the levee along La. 997 in Belle River.
On June 2, 2014, FAS applied through the Office of Conservation to construct and operate a commercial exploration and production transfer station in conjunction with their existing commercial waste saltwater disposal facility, according to the office’s order approving the permit.
Cormier said that since learning of the permit approval, parish officials have consulted with legal counsel and are exploring their legal options.
If FAS were to try to get a parish building permit for the station, St. Martin Parish officials would still consider the site not properly zoned to allow for the waste transfer station, Cormier said.
“We’re not going to rush in to issuing that out any time soon,” Cormier said.
In the state permit, DNR references a recent case, Vanguard Environmental LLC v. Terrebonne Parish Consolidated Government, Cormier said.
That case is similar to what St. Martin is going through with FAS, Cormier said.
Vanguard installed a waste disposal well a few hundred feet from a residential area so Terrebonne Parish fought the case to the state Supreme Court and lost, Cormier said.
“Every case is different. That’s what my attorney’s telling me,” Cormier said.
“We’re still sticking to the guns that we have zoning in St. Martin Parish for a reason,” Cormier said.
By next week, St. Martin parish officials plan to have an idea of what action, if any, parish government would take in the matter, Cormier said.
At a February public hearing, Cormier said that when the company first approached the parish zoning commission for a levee rezoning variance from residential to heavy industrial, they were denied and parish officials informed them of the correct procedures to follow before the parish council made its decision, The Bayou Journal reported. The company chose not to follow the stated process and instead filed a 400-page request with the Office of Conservation, the article stated.
The St. Martin Parish Council voted to uphold the zoning commission’s recommendation and denied the request, The Bayou Journal reported.
“FAS was told the steps to take next but chose not to follow them,” Cormier said at the hearing. St. Martin Parish has supported the residents of Belle River in their objections to the company’s proposal, The Bayou Journal article stated.
At a public hearing Feb. 26, the request to rezone a portion of Lower St. Martin Parish to construct a wastewater transfer site on the banks of the Atchafalaya River was met with much opposition, The Bayou Journal reported.
Concerned residents, public officials, environmentalists and fishermen attended the February hearing, The Bayou Journal article stated. More than 20 people petitioned to speak before Department of Natural Resources reps Steven Olivier, environmental impact specialist, and John Adams, attorney for the DNR, The Bayou Journal reported.
State Rep. Sam Jones, D-Franklin, expressed concern at the public hearing regarding the possibility that the safety of Atchafalaya Basin water that might be affected, he said. Jones was also concerned about possible damage to the levee if company officials cut the levee in order to construct the waste transfer station, he said.
In response to comments about the site not being properly zoned to allow for the waste transfer station, DNR officials stated that the regulation of the disposal of any waste product, considered non-hazardous, through a disposal well is within the exclusive jurisdiction of the Office of Conservation.
The FAS transfer station will consist of a truck unloading area with above ground tanks for the temporary storage of waste fluids, according to the Office of Conservation order.
FAS has operated a transfer site on the banks of the Atchafalaya Basin since the 1980s, less than a mile from the Belle River Bridge on La. 70, The Bayou Journal reported. The product is taken by shuttle barge to the injection well where it is disposed, the article stated.
The DNR permit approval stated that waste fluids from the new transfer station will eventually be transported by pipeline to the company’s existing commercial exploration and production waste saltwater disposal facility in Lower St. Martin Parish for disposal.
Under DNR’s Office of Conservation order, FAS will submit and provide evidence of financial responsibility for any liability for damages, which may be caused to any party by the discharge of any material or waste from the transfer station.
At the February hearing, Ben Bienvenue of the Louisiana Crawfish Producers Association West said the wastewater FAS might put in the water was bad for fish and seafood and that he had the endorsement of state Sen. Fred Mills in asking that the request be rejected, The Bayou Journal reported.
At the meeting, retired U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Russel Honore, representing the Green Army, said what the company would be hauling could contain toxic materials. He also mentioned, as did several others, the frequency of rising waters in the basin could easily wash spills into the Intracoastal waters, The Bayou Journal reported. Honore asked the Department of Natural Resources to reject the application, the article stated.
The Daily Review attempted to reach a FAS company official for comment but had not received a call back as of this morning.
On Jan. 29, Raymond Marcel Jr. of Berwick and Cyril D. Robicheaux of Morgan City, along with Ram Environmental Services LLC in Morgan City, were sentenced in U.S. District Court of the Middle District of Louisiana after admitting that, in 2011 and 2012, they conspired with others to illegally discharge industrial wastewater at locations including in Belle River and to otherwise obstruct the enforcement of the federal environmental laws through kickbacks, the creation and use of false documents, and other fraudulent means, U.S. Attorney Walt Green said in a news release.
A former FAS employee, Michael J. Vaughn, was sentenced in October 2013 for his role in the scheme and ordered to pay restitution to FAS, Green said.
FAS terminated Vaughn’s employment, its former operations manager, upon learning of the scheme and cooperated fully, Green said.
Green said that FAS Environmental Services’ ownership was unaware of the defendants’ scheme. FAS Environmental Services terminated Vaughn’s employment, its former operations manager, upon learning of the scheme and cooperated fully, the release said.