Louisiana Attorney General's Office Sends Letter to Environmental Protection Agency Regarding El Dorado Pipeline

October 11, 2007: (Baton Rouge, LA) — Louisiana Attorney General Charles C. Foti, Jr. has sent a letter to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in full support of the recent request by the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality for the EPA to withdraw support for, and indeed formally object to, the recent issuance of a permit by the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ). This permit authorizes the discharge of waste water into the Ouachita River in Arkansas, just north of the Louisiana state line.

In its letter to the EPA, the Attorney General’s Office wrote that the EPA has an affirmative duty under the Clean Water Act to ensure compliance with the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System authority that it has delegated to the states. The Attorney General’s Office further wrote that the flaws that have been identified with this permit raise substantial doubts about the manner in which Arkansas carried out its delegated duties—doubts that, at a minimum, warrant an EPA objection to the permit. In addition, the Attorney General’s Office wrote that the EPA should invalidate the permit to allow the proper scientific analyses of the impacts of the proposed discharges on Louisiana’s water to be conducted.

This permit is currently the subject of a lawsuit against ADEQ. In March, the Attorney General’s Office, on behalf of the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality, Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries and the Louisiana Department of Culture, Recreation and Tourism, filed a challenge to the ADEQ decision to issue a water discharge permit authorizing the discharge of pollutants into the Ouachita River above the Louisiana state line.

The Attorney General’s Office is challenging the permit on the grounds that Arkansas did not ensure that the discharges would not have a negative effect on the Ouachita River downstream in Louisiana. The state is alleging that the ADEQ did not provide the relevant data, sampling and modeling information in a timely manner to the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality to ensure that Louisiana clean water standards are met under the new permit. The permit essentially allows four companies to discharge pollutants into one pipeline that leads to the Ouachita River. The state is concerned that the pipeline directly discharges pollutants into the Ouachita River and the discharge is not diluted by any tributaries, causing potential downstream pollution of the river.

A trial on this matter is scheduled for October 29, 2007 through November 2, 2007 in Little Rock, Arkansas.

Source: Louisiana Attorney General

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