Will FEMA Finish Off Laredo Toxic Waste Dump?
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The fate of a planned toxic waste dump near Laredo should be decided in the next few weeks. FEMA is set to issue new flood maps that could spell the end of the planned dump and the 9 year fight to stop it.
Wait, hasn’t this happened before? Yes.
Last year FEMA issues 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 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, allowing the town to dump their trash for at least the next 100 years.
The decision by FEMA will have consequences for hundreds of thousands of people living in Webb County.
Will the federal agency help put an end to this public danger once and for all?
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