Laredo Toxic Waste Dump Delayed Again by FEMA
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The lengthy battle over the fate of a planned toxic waste dump near Laredo will continue into the new year thanks to delays from FEMA.
The flood agency was supposed to issue new flood maps that could have spelled doom for the proposed dump in November. Dolcefino Consulting has been investigating the dump and the threat to residents as part of a 9-year battle to stop it.
The new flood maps will confirm if too much of the site for the proposed dump falls inside of a 100-year flood plain. Dump owners didn’t like the last flood map.
Dolcefino Consulting was notified by AECOM, FEMA’s flood map contractor, back in September of this year the new maps would be issued within 60 days. Rancho Viejo, the developers of the Pescadito Environmental Resource Center told state court judges the same thing. We have now learned of another notice from AECOM stating they would need more time.
When Dolcefino Consulting inquired if AECOM anticipates the flood maps would change based on the new information submitted on the site, a representative for the company stated, “No determination has been made at this time.”
What is taking so long?
Wait, hasn’t this happened before? The answer is yes.
Last year FEMA issued flood maps showing most of the planned coal ash landfill near Laredo would sit in the 100-year floodplain.
After an appeal by the dump developer, FEMA has spent the last year, delayed by coronavirus, working to update flood maps for the Webb County area where the landfill would be. The court fight at SOAH has already been delayed for nearly a year and a half waiting for this decision.
“If you tell me that you’re going to build a dump in a floodplain, you’re going to be taking in coal fly ash and other waste from Mexico and you’re going to run straight through the middle of town across rail lines, the answer is not only no but hell no,” said City Councilman George Altgelt in an interview with Dolcefino Consulting.
In September, the Laredo City Council purchased the Ponderosa Regional Landfill, providing the town a spot to dump their trash for at least the next 100 years, hopefully eliminating any argument for the Pescadito dump site.
The big decision by FEMA will have consequences for hundreds of thousands of people living in Webb County. Stay tuned.
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