A proposal to expand the New Orleans area’s River Birch landfill and make it the state’s largest was examined at a packed hearing, where management pledged operational limits and technological improvements to skeptical neighbors.
One controversial part of the proposal would grant the landfill a nationwide service area, but River Birch president Billy Gibbens said the company would guarantee limits on that plan. He said the company would reach an agreement with the state not to accept municipal and other “disposal” trash from more than 200 miles away, reserving the new designation for waste that could be used for its growing renewable energy operations.
More than 100 residents from Waggaman, Avondale, River Ridge and other parts of Jefferson Parish opposed the expansion and aired skepticism of that commitment at the state Department of Environmental Quality hearing Tuesday night in Avondale. The at times raucous hearing was for a solid waste permit to nearly double the landfill’s capacity by incorporating the closed Greater New Orleans Landfill next door…