[StBernard] Torres probing own trash workers

Westley Annis westley at da-parish.com
Wed Nov 19 08:01:47 EST 2008


Torres probing own trash workers
by Chris Kirkham, The Times-Picayune
Tuesday November 18, 2008, 10:17 PM
Garbage hauling executive Sidney Torres IV has hired a private investigator
to pry into his own company in search of whether employees illegally dumped
portable toilet waste into unauthorized sewage treatment systems at New
Orleans' City Park.

Torres said his trucks should not have dumped human waste into any sewage
system except St. Bernard Parish, which late last month ordered his company,
SDT Waste & Debris, to stop dumping into its system despite previously
giving him written authorization to do so.

Torres firmly denied ever giving an order to dump the waste anywhere but St.
Bernard.

"That's something that's totally unacceptable, " he said Tuesday. "We have a
company policy and if somebody broke that company policy there will be
consequences. . . . I don't understand why someone in their right mind would
decide to change that policy."


Torres has hired TMI Investigations of Slidell, run by Terrell Miceli, to
get statements from drivers and other employees who may have been involved
in dumping portable toilet waste into a lift station in City Park on the
weekend of the VooDoo Music Experience last month. SDT had a private
contract to handle garbage pickup and portable toilet waste during the music
festival.

Miceli said his firm started the investigation last week, and expects to
finalize a report with recommendations to Torres within weeks.

"It looks like it was an isolated incident from what we can tell thus far, "
Miceli said.

Torres said his attorney has been in contact with the state Department of
Environmental Quality, which he said is also looking into the matter.

"Bottom line is that if there are any issues or if there is something that
comes out of those wrongdoings, we'll take the appropriate action and we'll
do whatever we have to do to straighten it out if there is anything wrong or
if there is not anything wrong, " Torres said.

DEQ's enforcement division was already looking into SDT's discharge of human
waste into St. Bernard Parish's sewage system.

Torres had written authorization to dump toilet waste into a designated
sewage lift station for 10 cents a gallon dating to August 2007, according
to a letter signed by Linda Daly, who is now the parish's public works
director but in 2007 was the parish's water and sewer administrator. But in
late October, Parish President Craig Taffaro said he was unaware of such an
agreement, and sent a letter to Torres ordering him to stop.

Anyone operating a wastewater discharge plant must note in its application
to the state Department of Environmental Quality whether waste from outside
the system will be deposited. In St. Bernard's most recent application,
submitted in June, nothing is mentioned.

The parish government violation was handed over to DEQ's enforcement
division, which will decide whether to fine the parish. Torres said his
company is on firm legal footing because of the letter.

"If they didn't think that was OK, they wouldn't have given us the letter, "
he said.

Parish probe wrapping up

Taffaro declined to comment on the discrepancy with Daly's authorization to
dump, except to say the matter was "under administrative review."

Torres said he has since started hauling portable toilet waste to McDonald
Sanitation Services, a private facility in Thibodaux. He said he hopes to
negotiate a way to continue dumping into the St. Bernard system.

Also on Tuesday, St. Bernard Parish Council Chairman Wayne J. Landry said
that by Friday he intends to wrap up the council's investigation into rising
landfill costs billed to the parish by SDT.

He and several other council members said they do not see any wrongdoing by
SDT based on the figures provided to them by SDT.

"We reviewed the books, and everything looks like it's tracking, "
Councilman Kenny Henderson said. "I don't think anything was done wrong."

Records show the parish's landfill costs rose from $41,000 in May 2007 to
$392,000 in February 2008. But based on the number of trailers that came to
the site with construction debris from the parish and two parishwide debris
sweeps done by SDT, Landry said the construction debris could account for
the large upticks.

He blamed the parish and SDT for not monitoring conditions at the
SDT-operated garbage transfer site on Paris Road, where much of SDT's
commercial debris and St. Bernard's waste were mixed together. SDT was given
permission to operate the parish-owned site under a verbal agreement with
former Parish President Henry "Junior" Rodriguez.

"What I've seen is what I've said all along: poor business practices on both
sides, " Landry said. "There were no scales to accurately measure it. What
else can you do? You've got to make a good-faith estimate."

Nonetheless, he said he still intends to ask SDT to repay $126,000 to the
parish for tonnage billed to St. Bernard when SDT did not charge anything to
the city of New Orleans, where the company collects waste from residents in
the French Quarter, as well as from private businesses.

"It was bad management on my part, bad management on the parish's part, bad
management overall with the way it was set up, " Torres said.

. . . . . . .

Chris Kirkham can be reached at ckirkham at timespicayune.com or 504.826.3321.




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