Does DNR permit trump a parish’s zoning laws?

Industrial waste water injection into an environment like the Atchafalaya Basin is a worrying prospect to many people and organizations that are concerned with the preservation of the Basin. For residents of Belle River who live along La. Hwy. 997, though, 35 to 50 tanker trucks per day are the most immediate threat, and it’s not clear that St. Martin parish intends to continue the fight.
The owner of the injection well, FAS Environmental Inc., was denied a zoning variance from the parish to allow the construction of a new terminal close to the well. The facility would allow the company’s trucks to access its injection well without the use of the “shuttle barges” that currently carry the contaminated water the last 1.75 miles to the well.
The company will benefit financially, but parish zoning laws will be ignored and residents feel that they will pay the price in the form of noise and safety risks associated with greatly increased truck traffic on the two-lane shoulderless La. Hwy. 997.
The residents are not alone in opposing this action. The Louisiana Environmental Action Network (LEAN), the Sierra Club, the Atchafalaya Basinkeeper, tourism and sportsmen groups join the Concerned Citizens of Belle River against it.
In granting the request by FAS, the state Department of Natural Resources’ Office of Conservation may have violated more than the parish’s zoning ordinances. The Louisiana constitution imposes a duty of environmental protection on all state agencies and officials (Article IX-1). As interpreted by the state’s Supreme Court, this provision requires a company seeking action from DNR to submit “sufficient information” for the required analysis to take place.
Basinkeeper and other groups maintain that FAS filings contained deficient analysis of alternate depot sites, improperly limiting their consideration to sites within an arbitrary two miles of the current site. Also missing from the application is any cost/benefit analysis that includes the effect of the increased truck traffic on La. 997.
Additionally, according to Tulane University’s Environmental Law Clinic, the Supreme Court has ruled that local governmental entities that have a home rule charter, as St. Martin Parish does, “can enforce zoning ordinances against state agencies.” Also, La. Statute 33:109.1 requires that when a parish has a development “master plan,” that plan must be considered in granting permits.
DNR Office of Conservation’s Patrick Courreges told Teche News that the parish can still enforce zoning laws. Parish Legal Council Chester Cedars, however, said that none of that changes the fact that state rulings ultimately preempt local ordinances, and recourse is limited if the state stands by its decision.
Parish President Guy Cormier told the Teche News that the parish was in consultation with the Toulane group and a plan of action was in the works.