Dial Dalfred: Raised concerns over St. Martin Parish landfill
The potential of a St. Martin Parish landfill making room for even more waste is causing concern for people who live in the area.
ST. MARTIN PARISH, La. (KLFY) – The potential of a St. Martin Parish landfill making room for even more waste is causing concern for people who live in the area.
A group in the parish has already started a petition to put a stop to it.
If you’ve driven down Highway 182 in the Cade area, chances are at nearly 50 miles an hour you probably missed the rolling hills of the Greenpoint Landfill. But for the people who live in the neighboring community, it’s a sight they cannot ignore.
"When I walk out of my backyard, I see a big ole mound of dirt. I don’t spend as much time outside like I would like to because the dust flying or the odor, and I try to keep my grandkids from playing outside also." Earl Walker has lived in Burke Road area since the 60’s. He told us not only is the landfill an eyesore, it also brings a decent amount of noise.
"You could be sleeping about 7:30 8 o’clock it’s going to wake you up with the noise of the machines running and big trucks in and out all time of the morning and during the day."
David Pugh also lives in the neighborhood and has documented the list of landfill violations over the past several years. "The violations I’m talking about are dust getting blown off site, smell, lack of cover; that leads to erosion, and exposed garbage. They bring mud out on the highway on rainy days, that’s a hazard. The worst thing probably is the unacceptable that keep getting found in there."
After failing to get the dump site shut down in 2021, people in the community are now trying to stop its growth.
Greenpoint filed for a permit modification in March; stating the landfill has less than a year of capacity remaining, the modification will increase capacity by five years, and failure to do so will potentially encourage illegal dumping.
Pugh and other opponents hosted a meeting to get the word out about what’s happening at the landfill. An online petition to stop the expansion already has over 400 signatures. "We’ve already had one little town meeting back here. We’re going to have another one in early July, we’ll try to get our parish representative interested in the next one and will take it from here."
I spoke to the General Manager at Greenpoint, Sean Day, he told me there are times when “unacceptables”, like carpet backing and plastic containers make it into the landfill, and there’s some erosion after rain, which did lead to violations.
Day says they’re doing what they can to follow the compliance order and affect the quality of life for the community as little as possible.
He also mentioned in this permit modification the would be keeping the same footprint and it could be the last request, then in five years, the landfill will have served its purpose.
We’ll keep you updated on any developments.
If there’s an ongoing issue in your neighborhood or community or there’s a story you’d like me to investigate, send me an email at DialDalfred@klfy.com.