ERIK SANZENBACH / L’Observateur / August 14, 1999

LAPLACE-A simple request for a temporary non-domestic sewerage use permit turned into a battle of words between St. John Public UtilitiesDirector Sammy Accardo and parish presidential candidate Mike “Coach” Maggiore at Tuesday night’s Parish Council meeting.

Accardo asked the council to give BFI Industries a temporary permit allowing them to transport leachate water to the Garyville sewerage plant. This leachate would come from two landfills, one in Louisiana andthe other in Mississippi.

Leachate, which is rainwater run-off that has fallen on garbage dumps and been collected, is non-hazardous, according to Accardo. Plus there wouldbe testing of the leachate before it was put into the sewerage plant, and it would be tested after it was processed to make sure it posed no hazard to the residents of St. John Parish. All the testing would be paid for byBFI.

Accardo said the plan is a win-win situation for the parish. First of all, itwould benefit the sewerage plant in Garyville. At the present time, theplant is only working at 6 percent of its capacity The plant is designed to handle 900,000 gallons of sewerage a day but is only doing 40,000 gallons a day.

“This is costing us a lot of money to run it,” said Accardo. “It is veryinefficient.”Adding the leachate to the process would make the plant run more efficiently and would lower operating costs.

Councilman Kevin Duhon agreed. “Our biomass in the Garyville plant will doa better job if more leachate is used.”The other positive aspect of accepting the leachate is that BFI Industries will pay the parish one and three-fourths cents per gallon of leachate, compared to the one-tenth cent per gallon the parish charges the residents for sewerage, Accardo said. He added this could amount to over $250,000 ayear for the parish.

Councilman Joel McTopy said he wanted to know what would come out of the sewerage plant after the leachate had been treated.

“Will it meet EPA and DEQ standards?” McTopy asked. “We do not want thetaxpayers of St. John Parish to get fined.”Mike Curtis of Curtis Environmental Services, the company that will be testing the leachate, told the council that the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Environmental Quality require even more tests for leachate water after it has been processed than for normal sewerage.

Mike Daigle, a representative for BFI, said the EPA has declared leachate to be harmless and non-hazardous. He also said that Jefferson Parish hasbeen processing much larger amounts of leachate from BFI for the past five years, and they have had no problems.

Councilman-at-Large Dale Wolfe expressed concerns about the organization of the deal.

“I want to see every detail of the plan,” he declared. “I want to know everyone of the players in this.”Accardo assured Wolfe that his office is open to inspection and that the final decision on the permit is up to the Parish Council.

Maggiore went to the podium and expressed great distrust in the entire project.

“I’ve been listening to all this, and I just can’t accept it,” he said. “If itsmells like sewerage, tastes like sewerage, then it’s sewerage. Bringingin contaminated water that has been filtered through a landfill is just not a good thing to do.” Maggiore’s biggest concern, he said, is the testing of the leachate. Hedoesn’t think all of it will get checked before being put into the Garyville plant.

“There are a lot of things that need to be looked into,” he declared.

He questioned the parish’s eagerness to go along with the deal.

“Mississippi doesn’t want this for their state,” he said. “If this is such agreat deal, why doesn’t Mississippi want it?” Maggiore wasn’t moved by the money to be gained in the project.

“A quarter million dollars is not enough money,” he said. “We’re sellingourselves down the toilet.”Maggiore said he’s very suspicious of BFI, and wondered, “Has the council checked out the BFI permits? I agree with Councilman Wolfe that we have to know all the players in the game.”Accardo returned to the podium and angrily told Maggiore, “I don’t appreciate being accused of being involved in a shady deal.”He then held up a copy of an ad Maggiore had purchased in L’Observateur that accused the parish government of turning the parish into a dumping ground.

“This is what I think of this,” Accardo said as he tore up the ad. “I havedone everything by the law.”Maggiore stormed back up to the podium, and he and Accardo started yelling at each other. Council President Duaine Duffy then restored order,and gave the floor to Maggiore.

“I am not going to take this anymore,” Maggiore yelled, then he stomped out of the council chambers.

The final word on the issue was given by Pat Sellars, president of A3M Vacuum Service, the company that will haul the leachate for BFI.

“We take all our waste out of St. John Parish, so what is the big dealhere?” he asked.

The vote on the permit passed with only Wolfe objecting.

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