State won't extend life of landfill

The Slidell Landfill must close in May as scheduled after the state Department of Environmental Quality denied the landfill's request to remain open for another 10 years.

The DEQ announced its decision Tuesday afternoon, more than four months after the landfill's owners asked the agency to modify its solid waste permit, as well as grant a solid waste permit renewal, so that the site could stay open until 2019 to allow time for the landfill to achieve the proper grades and slopes.

Cheryl Sonnier Nolan, the DEQ's assistant secretary in the Office of Environmental Services, said in a letter to Harold McCain, the landfill's manager, that the DEQ found no compelling reason to extend the timeline for closure. Further, the agency felt justified in its denial based on the site's compliance history, she said.

"I am happy the DEQ is following its original closure order," St. Tammany Parish President Kevin Davis said after learning from The Times-Picayune that the DEQ denied the landfill's request. Davis, along with the St. Tammany Parish Council and innumerable residents, had asked the DEQ to reject the permit modification and force the site to close next year.

Despite the rejection, one of the site's owners said Tuesday that he thinks he can convince the DEQ and everyone else that keeping the construction-and-demolition debris landfill open is the best option for St. Tammany Parish. Under its closure order, the landfill must cease collection by Jan. 31 and close by May.

Kent Durham, an attorney who purchased the landfill last year with Fletcher Kelly and four others, said he is working to gather support from the landfill's neighbors to bolster a planned appeal to the DEQ.

However, most residents and businesses near the landfill -- on Howze Beach Lane between Old Spanish Trail and the Northshore Harbor Center -- have voiced strong opposition to the landfill staying open....