St. Martinville – The state Department of Environmental Quality approved major expansion requests for the Greenpoint Landfill solid waste disposal facility on Old Spanish Trail Highway over the objections of nearby residents and members of the St. Martin Parish Council, Councilwoman Carla JeanBatiste told the council’s at its committee meetings this past Tuesday.
“This weekend we were notified that DEQ went ahead and approved the dump site expansion,” JeanBatiste said. “So pretty much everything they wanted — the expansion, the increase in height, the ability to go from covering every 14 days to now every 30 days — (has been granted). It was reported to me after the meeting they were cited again for non-compliance, and they still were granted an expansion. So unfortunately, the residents are not happy about that. At this point there’s not really much we can do about that because the decision was under DEQ.
JeanBatiste said that Cade resident David Pugh, who has been among many nearby residents opposed to the expansion and continued operation of the facility, called DEQ to ask the reason for granting the expansion but he was not given an answer other than the request was within the parameters set by the state.
