‘They have to convince us’:
Concerned residents react to Clean Harbors Colfax’s renewed permit
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COLFAX, La. (KALB) – With the news of a hazardous waste permit renewal for Clean Harbors Colfax (CHC) comes the same wary approach by some Colfax residents to the plant’s operations.
‘THEIR TRACK RECORD IS NOT GOOD’
CHC is the only facility in the country that uses open burn and open detonation (OB/OD) practices to dispose of hazardous waste, including carcinogenic chemicals and explosives.
The renewed permit requires the permanent end to OB/OD practices at the CHC facility by Dec. 26, which is 180 days after the issuance of the final permit.
“That was one of our big pushes throughout this campaign was to have that end and end permanently,” said Brenda Vallee, president of the Central Louisiana Coalition for Clean Air and Healthy Environment, a group at the center of opposition to CHC’s permit renewal.
Still, concerned residents who have called for the permanent closure of the plant altogether remain apprehensive of CHC’s operations.
“Their track record is not good. So, they have to convince us that they are doing something that is legitimate, is above board and is according to the regulations,” alleged Vallee. “At this point in time, their past record just doesn’t give us that good faith feeling.”
LDEQ examined all 10 violations of compliance with Louisiana’s environmental regulations, some of which involved the unauthorized disposal of waste and improper smoldering periods following OB/OD events.
HEALTH CONCERNS
Those violations alarm some residents of Colfax and others in Grant Parish who have long complained of health issues from silt and pollution falling on the community from CHC.
“I had respiratory distress back here at the beginning of this year, where I walked outside and it’s like I was having an asthma attack as soon as I walked out of my front door,” said Levi Stubbs, a Colfax resident for the last 29 years. “That is because of the day-to-day burning at Clean Harbors.”
Stubbs said after repeated sinus infections in 2016, his sinus cavity collapsed, which the ENT said was caused by environmental issues around his property.
“This environmental issue in this community has affected a lot of people, and a lot of people don’t know what was the cause of it,” said Stubbs. “We do because we’ve pinpointed exactly what was going on. I even had a doctor tell me, ‘Sir, you’ve been having respiratory issues because of something in the environment.’”
In giving their reasoning for renewing CHC’s permit, the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality said the Louisiana Department of Health conducted a health assessment through air monitoring and determined the results did not indicate health effects on residents around the facility.
Those results were collected during a two-week period, and LDEQ said they may not be representative of potential impacts.
Ultimately, the agency decided any potential environmental impacts were outweighed by social and economic benefits of the facility’s operation. That is not a conclusion everyone agrees with.
“Their wages are not tremendous, they don’t hire a whole lot of people, and the economic impact to this area is marginal,” said Terry Brown, a concerned resident and former state representative for District 22 from 2010-2020.
THE LEGISLATIVE HISTORY TO ELIMINATE OB/OD
Brown introduced legislation in 2016 to eliminate OB/OD practices in the state, with exceptions for the military and Louisiana State Police’s open burning of munitions and waste explosives. It narrowly made it out of a House committee but was ultimately withdrawn from the House files.
Brown said CHC’s lobbying firm “lobbied hard and heavy with the legislature.” During the 2016 Regular Session, Brown accused the lobbying firm, Southern Strategies, of offering up investments in his district if he agreed to kill the bill.
Southern Strategies called the allegations “totally and unequivocably absurd.”
Even with LDEQ’s ban of OB/OD practices for CHC going forward, the former state representative believes there still needs to be legislation to prevent OB/OD from happening again.
“I hope that no other community has to go through what we went through here,” said Brown.
WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?
Going forward, concerned residents and CHC both have until July 28 to decide whether or not to appeal the permit.
“We know that we could have possible bad consequences by appealing or we could have possible good,” said Vallee. “So, that’s something we have to weigh and figure out.”
As they sort through the 306-page permit, which includes the approved construction of a controlled burn chamber system, Vallee’s group has to consider their concerns.
”The issue with the most concerns is that they will continue to accept waste and store it in their warehouses,” said Wilma Subra, technical assistant for LA environmental action network. “We’ve had unbelievable weather events over the last year or two, if something goes wrong and something gets ignited with this whole host of waste they’re storing in there, that could be a disaster going on.”
The group also wants to know if they will have access to CHC’s future monitoring of emissions from the controlled burn chamber once it becomes operational. They currently do not know if that request will be a part of the design.
Notably, to be in compliance with the permit, CHC must submit a plan to create a comprehensive community outreach program. The program would have to include activities for understanding concerns, sharing facility information and addressing impacts to the communities.
The deadline to create the program is Sept. 27.