By Kristen Mosbrucker (Originally published in The Advocate 4/28/21) Businesses that fall short on requirements for property tax breaks under a state program will have to get letters from local taxing bodies favoring any amendments to existing agreements, a state board voted Wednesday. With economic repercussions from the global COVID-19 pandemic forecast linger for years, […]
WWG
Community members say New Orleans company owes millions on years-old improvements
NEW ORLEANS, La. (WVUE) – A watchdog group and members of the community are asking why a major New Orleans employer is asking for a tax exemption on years-old additions made to their facilities. The watchdog group Together New Orleans says Folgers Coffee Company, with two locations in New Orleans East, should owe the city […]
Appellate ruling forcing Thermaldyne to disclose discharges into water upheld
A company that reclaims oil refinery waste may be required to identify the pollutants it wants to dump into the Intracoastal Waterway in West Baton Rouge Parish after the Supreme Court declined this week to hear an appeal from a lower court. The Intracoastal supplies drinking water to 10,000 people in nearby Iberville Parish and […]
Lousiana Supreme Court Refuses to Hear LDEQ Appeal
Thermaldyne is a new facility that reclaims oil from materials that are, in all but name, industrial hazardous waste. It applied to the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality (LDEQ) for a permit to discharge the water that is leftover into the Intracoastal Canal, directly upstream of the intake for the drinking water of about 10,000 […]
CORONA VIRUS UPDATE FOR WWG OFFICES
Friends: As you may know, Waltzer Wiygul & Garside’s mission is to protect the people and places we love. That mission is now challenged by the spread of the novel coronavirus disease. To assure your safety and ours, and to do our part in fighting its spread, we have made the difficult decision to restrict […]
Court rules DEQ must force Thermaldyne to identify pollutants headed for Intracoastal Waterway
State environmental regulators must require an oil refinery waste reclamation company in Port Allen to identify the pollutants it wants to dump into the Intracoastal Waterway in West Baton Rouge Parish, a state appeals court ruled. A unanimous three-judge panel of the Louisiana 1st Circuit Court of Appeal upheld a lower-court ruling that regulators must […]
‘Colossal bait-and-switch’: Port Allen plant’s air permit modification attacked in court
Calling a Port Allen industrial recycling plant’s modified air permit a “colossal bait-and-switch,” a lawyer for environmentalists asked a Baton Rouge judge Wednesday to vacate the permit and send it back to a state regulatory agency for more study. Louisiana Environmental Action Network attorney Clay Garside argued to state District Judge Trudy White that Thermaldyne’s […]
WWG Summer Intern: Daniel Schwank
Waltzer Wiygul has two offices in New Orleans and one on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. The firm handles environmental law cases for public interest organizations and private parties that include Clean Water Act, Clean Air Act, and NEPA litigation. Although I have worked for them for two summers, this past summer I mostly wrote memorandum […]
Colonial Landfill operators agree to more testing for gas emissions, odors in suit settlement
The operators of the Colonial Landfill near Sorrento have agreed to increased air monitoring for two years under a settlement ending litigation over a permit allowing expanded dumping at the decades-old waste pile. BFI Waste Systems of Louisiana, a subsidiary of Republic Services, has agreed to hire a third-party company to test for methane and, […]
Judge: Louisiana officials must look anew at Port Allen industrial recycling plant application
A judge has paused — at least for the time being — construction of an industrial recycling facility in Port Allen where residents have raised concerns about toxic chemicals. The company Thermaldyne provided a “deficiency” of information when it applied for a permit with the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality last year, 19th Judicial District Judge […]