Turning trash into cash
March 24, 2008
By William Johnson    
wjohnson@dailyworld.com

A proposal that could generate up to $2 million a year to repair parish roads could be put before the voters later this year.

The St. Landry Parish Solid Waste Disposal District has been approached by IESI, which holds the contract to collect household trash in the parish, to start disposing of trash from neighboring parishes at the district's landfill near Beggs.

"The dollar amount we would generate is directly related to quantity - it would certainly be in the millions," said Solid Waste Executive Director Katry Martin.

Parish Councilman Gary Courville, who attended a meeting of community leaders at Solid Waste last week, said he believes the $2 million figure is actually on the low side. "I'm very optimistic," Courville said.

Parish President Don Menard said he supports the idea "100 percent. As long as this doesn't take away from the lifespan of our landfill, I say let the people decide. This can help us deal with our road problems while minimizing the cost to taxpayers," Menard said.

Council President Kenneth Vidrine is less certain. "I'm not sure it is a good idea. I don't believe in selling our parish as a garbage dump," Vidrine said. Still, he shares Menard's desire of putting the plan before the voters.

"I agree everything needs to be brought before the voters. The people need to decide," Vidrine said.

Menard took issue with Vidrine's characterization of the parish landfill as a dump. "He needs to take a look at the site. It is a DEQ regulated site. It is well-managed," Menard said.

Menard pointed out that accepting waste from other parishes is not a new idea. For years, the local landfill has been accepting trash from Evangeline Parish, which pays about $450,000 a year for the privilege.

The district is funded by a .8 cent parishwide sales tax, which pays for its day-to-day operations.

Therefore, by law, any such funds can only be used for road and road-related repairs.

Every few years, when that money reaches a certain level, Solid Waste has given grants to the parish and its 12 municipalities.

"They have a proven track record," Menard said. "They gave the old police jury $2 million. In 2004, they gave our new parish government $1 million that we used for new, much-needed road equipment. They gave us another $800,000 just recently."

Martin said the current landfill has the room to handle extra waste, with more than enough land to handle a 25-year life expectancy. There is also plenty of land available nearby if more is needed.

To clear the way from such a project, Solid Waste has voted to authorize the engineering firm of Aucoin and Associates to apply for a Department of Environmental Quality permit modification to re-define the existing landfill's service area to include all adjacent parishes.

Martin said the permit application does not mean the project is going forward. "This has yet to be determined. This would only happen by an act of the (parish) council," Martin said.

He said, as his agency would collect nothing from such a proposal, it does not have a vested interest in the plan one way or another.

"We just wanted to let the mayors and council know this option exists," Martin said of the Monday meeting attended by most mayors and parish council members.

Menard said most mayors and the council plan to begin holding public hearings to explain the proposal to the voters in the near future.

"You will start to see that on a lot of municipality agendas. I know it is going to be on our next council agenda," Menard said.

He said if the public response is positive, the council will most likely vote to put the proposal on the ballot later this year.