[FONT=Verdana]Debris disposal continued Monday at a controversial landfill in eastern New Orleans as Mayor Ray Nagin's administration handed its operator a legal order to shut down the site before the clock struck 12:01 a.m. this morning or be considered in violation of city law. [/FONT]
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[FONT=Verdana]After faxing a cease-and-desist order to Waste Management of Louisiana on Monday about 2 p.m., City Attorney Penya Moses-Fields said the company had not applied to the City Council for a conditional use permit needed to continue running its Chef Menteur landfill, which opened in April with permission that Nagin granted through emergency powers. [/FONT]
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[FONT=Verdana]"At this point the city has no choice but to ask Waste Management to cease operations at the landfill," Moses-Fields said. "It is the priority of the city to make sure that the operations at the landfill are being conducted according to our local laws." [/FONT]
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[FONT=Verdana]However, it appeared that Waste Management had no intention of halting its activities. Striking back at the city almost immediately, the Houston-based trash hauler asked a federal court in New Orleans late Monday to bar Nagin from curtailing the landfill's operations until the mountains of debris left by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita are gone. [/FONT]
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[FONT=Verdana]Threats of protest outside [/FONT]
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[FONT=Verdana]That response, though not surprising in light of Waste Management's petition to a state court to keep its landfill open, sent shock waves through an eastern New Orleans community struggling to recover from Hurricane Katrina. Organizers put out a call Monday for residents to protest this morning outside the landfill's gates and to demand that it be shuttered permanently. [/FONT]
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[FONT=Verdana]"If Waste Management does not adhere to the cease-and-desist order from Mayor Nagin, it will unfortunately force both the city to take legal action and the community to once again take direct action," said City Councilwoman Cynthia Willard-Lewis, who represents the area and has been an outspoken opponent of the landfill. [/FONT]
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[FONT=Verdana]Tim Hawkins, the Waste Management market area vice president who received the cease-and-desist order, said Monday that his company had "adhered to all legislative, regulatory and judicial orders" in operating the landfill and would fight its closure. [/FONT]
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[FONT=Verdana]He said shutting the landfill would create a massive challenge in ridding the city quickly of construction and demolition debris spawned by Katrina, an opinion that has been echoed by officials with the state Department of Environmental Quality, which authorized the state permit allowing the landfill to operate. [/FONT]
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[FONT=Verdana]"New Orleans needs to know that any alternative to the Chef Menteur site would take nearly a year to develop and permit, if the process started today," Hawkins said. "In the meantime, debris will sit on curbs for months on end while tens of thousands of homes are demolished and rebuilt, creating new waves of trash." [/FONT]
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[FONT=Verdana]DEQ reviewing city order [/FONT]
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[FONT=Verdana]DEQ attorney Lou Buatt said his agency over the next several days will review its latest position that New Orleans officials were in concurrence with the landfill's continued operations. [/FONT]
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[FONT=Verdana]Their understanding had been drawn from a letter penned Thursday by Moses-Fields, who told the DEQ that the city's intentions not to renew the six-month zoning waiver that Nagin inked Feb. 14 allowing the landfill to open should not be construed as opposition to the site. [/FONT]
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[FONT=Verdana]The DEQ said the city's assertion had satisfied its policy that all state-approved landfills have the green light from local elected officials. On Friday, DEQ officials said they would not revoke the landfill's state permit. [/FONT]
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[FONT=Verdana]On Monday, Buatt said his agency had not been in contact with New Orleans officials but had obtained a copy of the cease-and-desist order, which Moses-Fields distributed to reporters. [/FONT]
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[FONT=Verdana]"We're evaluating this cease-and-desist (order) that we have from the city to Waste Management to determine whether or not that impacts on the previously manifested concurrence from the city," Buatt said. [/FONT]
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[FONT=Verdana]Buatt said he hoped city officials would contact the DEQ directly to clarify their position. "If they wanted DEQ to revoke the authorization, all we needed to know and clearly understand is that they did not want the use of the facility any longer," he said. "We have never insisted that this facility continue to operate if local government didn't want it to operate." [/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana]Nagin 'flip-flops' blasted [/FONT]
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[FONT=Verdana]But Buatt went on to say that even if the DEQ decided that the cease-and-desist order demonstrated the city's apparent change of heart, yanking the landfill's state permit would not be simple. [/FONT]
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[FONT=Verdana]Ruling Friday on a complaint that Waste Management filed in state court in Baton Rouge, state Judge Janice Clark called for maintenance of the "status quo" at the site. That means that if the DEQ wanted to revoke the landfill's state permit, the agency would have to seek permission from Clark, Buatt said. Further legal wrangling also could be necessary in the federal case. [/FONT]
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[FONT=Verdana]Kyle Schonekas, an attorney for neighbors in a separate lawsuit seeking to close the landfill, laid blame for the confusing situation on Nagin, who has changed his position on the landfill from support to neutrality to opposition over a course of weeks. [/FONT]
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[FONT=Verdana]"I'm disappointed that the mayor hasn't taken a consistent position on this throughout," Schonekas said. "He has spawned this problem through his flip-flops." [/FONT]
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[FONT=Verdana]Hanging over the Chef Menteur landfill debate is the question of where countless tons of hurricane-related debris would be shipped if the eastern New Orleans site closes. Mayoral spokeswoman Ceeon Quiett would not comment Monday on possible alternative locations. [/FONT]
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[FONT=Verdana]Barb Sturner, a spokeswoman for FEMA, which is footing the bill for debris cleanup in New Orleans, said the agency would not try to influence the decisions of local leaders. The Old Gentilly landfill, which is nearing capacity, and a landfill on Jefferson Parish's West Bank would be likely alternatives, she said. [/FONT]
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[FONT=Verdana]A DEQ spokesman concurred that those two sites probably would receive debris from New Orleans, but he pointed out that -- especially in making the trek to Jefferson Parish -- trash haulers would have to lug debris more than 20 miles, a process he said is time-consuming and expensive and could lead to illegal dumping inside city limits. [/FONT]
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[FONT=Verdana]"There is no technical or environmental reason to shut down that landfill, absolutely none," DEQ spokesman Darin Mann said of Chef Menteur. "With as much debris as is left to be disposed of, that landfill is what we need." [/FONT]