One of Louisiana's largest private garbage dumps is now the subject of a federal investigation
As debris weltered in Hurricane Katrina's aftermath, the landfill company River Birch Inc. used helicopter tours to argue against the government's reopening of Old Gentilly Landfill in eastern New Orleans.
The River Birch landfillThe company flew environmentalists and influential people over the site, pointing out allegedly illicit activity. But River Birch didn't broadcast that it paid for the flights or that it stood to gain business should the rival landfill close again, said Bob Thomas, director of Loyola University's Center for Environmental Communication.
"There wasn't anything hard-hitting from River Birch. They were something intended to be eye-openers," Thomas said of the tours. "It was sort of a marketing technique, but it was not made known before the flight."
Sierra Club organizer Darryl Malek-Wiley said he understood River Birch's interests when he observed Old Gentilly from the air, but that it was overshadowed by the photographs he was able to snap from the helicopter.
"I knew that it was getting paid for by River Birch, but it helped me identify 23 illegal dumps in New Orleans East and at the time the Sierra Club didn't have the resources to do that," he said.
The helicopter rides fit into a long-standing pattern by River Birch's owners, Fred Heebe and his stepfather, Jim Ward, of working to shut down rival dumps such as Old Gentilly and Two Rivers Recycling Landfill in Catahoula Parish as they built up their own landfill into one of the largest privately owned dumps in Louisiana. They spread campaign contributions far and wide and hired big-name lobbyists. And they peddled a $160 million deal to shut down Jefferson Parish's public dump for the next 25 years and accept most of the parish's household garbage at River Birch.
But in the past eight months, River Birch's activities also have attracted the attention of federal investigators. The FBI raided the company's Gretna offices in September, and on Wednesday, Henry Mouton, a former Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries commissioner, admitted accepting $464,000 in payoffs to use his official position to argue against River Birch's competitors.
Still, despite the veil of suspicion surrounding River Birch, Malek-Wiley said it could be the most environmentally sound dump in the New Orleans area.
"All landfills have problems, but I think they do their job better than any other landfill I've seen in southeast Louisiana," he said.
Heebe attorney Billy Gibbens said Heebe would not comment for this story. Ward and Heebe's sister, Adrea Heebe, a lawyer who has done work for River Birch, didn't return requests last week for interviews.
The length of River Birch's reach can be measured in part by the money it spent and the people it touched.
Major donors
Since their landfill opened in Waggaman on July 1, 1999, Heebe, Ward, their relatives and at least two affiliated companies contributed more than $1 million to candidates across the political spectrum. After Katrina struck in 2005, they spent almost $1.5 million on lobbyists and consultants in Washington, according to public records and the Center for Responsive Politics.
Fred Heebe
Jim WardFred Heebe and Ward engaged heavy hitters in the lobbying industry as River Birch sought tax incentives for its methane gas collection business and hunted for ways to navigate the federal bureaucracy after President George W. Bush declared Katrina's aftermath a major disaster, records show. The company counted former U.S. Rep. Bob Livingston, R-Metairie, and Joe Allbaugh, the former director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency during the Bush administration, among its consultants.
Livingston's shop, The Livingston Group, signed on in 2005 primarily to focus on landfill gas collection legislation, a firm representative said. After paying the firm $820,000, River Birch ended the arrangement in 2010, records show.
The Allbaugh Co., came aboard in 2006 after David Dewhurst, the Texas lieutenant governor, introduced Allbaugh and Heebe, Allbaugh said. His firm helped River Birch deal with the various federal agencies involved in Katrina clean-up.
"Because if they were just shooting in the dark, then they weren't navigating the federal bureaucracy so well," Allbaugh said.
For its work, which ended in January 2008, the Allbaugh Co. was paid $160,000 records show.
Allbaugh said he enjoyed working with Heebe.
"I found him a pleasant individual to talk with," he said.
Beyond hiring consultants, Heebe and Ward have long been involved in state and federal politics. Heebe sent $438,013 to candidates from 1999 to 2010. His wife, former Jefferson Parish Council member Jennifer Sneed, donated $159,716 to others' campaigns, plus $186,000 to pay debts from her own political career.
Donations to state and parish campaigns also were made through River Birch as well as Willow Inc. and Shadowlake Management Co., companies associated with Ward and Heebe, to the tune of $83,350 since 1999, records show.
As major donors in GOP circles, Heebe and Sneed gave a total of $125,000 between 2008 and 2009 to the Republican Party of Louisiana.
"They really didn't ask for anything special," state GOP Chairman Roger Villere said. "Just really supportive of our efforts."
In contrast, Ward and Heebe's sister, Adrea, tended to favor Democratic candidates and causes, records show. Ward donated $3,000 to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee between 2006 and 2010, and another $12,400 to the Democratic National Committee between 2004 and 2010, records show. Adrea Heebe contributed $12,000 between 2006 and 2009 to the March for Progress, a political action committee associated with the late Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass.
Heebe, Ward and their wives, along with Heebe's sister, all donated to U.S. Sen. David Vitter, R-La., who took an active role in trying to close the Old Gentilly Landfill after Katrina and was one of the 17 senators targeted by Mouton's letter-writing campaign against the dump. They contributed $27,800 to Vitter's campaigns between 2000 and 2010, records show, and Vitter argued publicly against reopening Old Gentilly.
A Vitter spokesman did not respond to a request for comment.
Mouton took bribes
Sending letters to U.S. senators was one of many methods Henry Mouton used to influence the landfill industry in River Birch's favor, according to public documents, interviews and his Feb. 25 federal indictment and subsequent guilty plea.
Mouton collected illegal payments, which eventually totaled close to $464,000, from a landfill owner between 2003 and April 2010. In return, he used his influence as a Wildlife and Fisheries commissioner to lobby against Old Gentilly and Two Rivers, but without disclosing that he was on the take from another dump.
The federal indictment doesn't name the person who paid him, but other public records indicate it's Heebe or Ward.
Henry MoutonGov. Mike Foster had appointed Mouton to the Wildlife and Fisheries commission in 2003. It was Foster's administration that had approved an operating permit for River Birch in 1997 and that allowed its expansion to almost 400 acres in 2004.
Dale Givens, Department of Environmental Quality secretary during most of the Foster administration, said he approved River Birch's permit because state waste disposal experts had favorably reviewed its high-tech operations.
"When they started up, they were in a much better place" than the older landfills in the area, Givens said.
Givens acknowledged that Mouton had contacted him on River Birch's behalf, but he said he didn't remember the topics they discussed. He said neither Mouton, Heebe nor Ward pressured him to approve the operating permit.
Mouton was a man of projects, Foster said.
"He was, like I say, Don Quixote, always tilting toward windmills," he said.
Foster said he appointed Mouton to the Wildlife and Fisheries commission because he liked to hunt and fish. He said he was unaware that Mouton had also been involved in two political action committees, LA Reform PAC and Rhodes PAC, which shared an address with Foster's campaign treasuries, according to campaign finance reports.
"If there was (a PAC), it probably had to do with something about organizing hunting trips," Foster said.
Foster said he didn't recall receiving any campaign contributions from Fred Heebe or his company's associates, although the Rhodes PAC recorded a $7,000 donation from River Birch on Nov. 2, 1999, 10 days after Foster won re-election.
In 2001, Foster pushed unsuccessfully for Heebe to be appointed U.S. attorney in New Orleans, often a plum job for political allies of elected officials, but one that eventually went to career prosecutor Jim Letten.
Still, Foster said his relationship with Heebe was purely social. The most Heebe ever did for him was help him convert his airboat's engine to fuel injection, Foster said.
"Fred was just the nicest guy I've ever known," he said.
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Richard Rainey can be reached at rrainey@timespicayune.com or 504.883.7052.