Provision dealing with environmental standards was widely viewed as a blow to the Old Gentilly Landfill
It was only 106 words in a 252-page federal bill, but those words demonstrated the clout of the River Birch Landfill's owners. The brief provision, added to a 2007 water resources bill that authorized hundreds of flood-control and navigation projects across the country, prohibited the use of federal funds for disposal of construction and demolition debris generated from Hurricane Katrina at any facility that didn't have the proper permits to handle "such debris in applicable federal law."
View full sizeRiver Birch landfillLuke Bolar, spokesman for Sen. David Vitter, R-La., who pushed for the provision along with Sen. Jim Inhofe, R-Okla., said it was aimed at blocking hurricane debris from going to any landfill that didn't possess the environmental safeguards to safely handle the materials.
The provision was widely viewed as a threat to the Old Gentilly Landfill, which was closed in 1986 but allowed by the state to reopen in late 2005 to deal with the hurricane emergency. Then-Mayor Ray Nagin and Mike McDaniel, secretary of the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality, both wrote to the Senate in July 2007, urging them to weigh the rider carefully. "Forcing the city to use the River Birch landfill ... would unnecessarily increase the overall costs to the city and state," Nagin's letter said in part.
Old Gentilly was River Birch's chief competitor for storm debris, and its post-hurricane opening was opposed by four major environmental groups as well as by River Birch's owners: Fred Heebe, a real estate developer and major Republican campaign contributor, and his stepfather, Jim Ward. River Birch has been under federal investigation for more than two years; the probe appears to center on River Birch's efforts to stifle competitors.
While no one has alleged any impropriety in the enactment of the landfill language, the issue has attracted the attention of Senate lawyers who have advised staff, both current and former, not to discuss the rider as long as the federal criminal probe continues.
That probe has led to a guilty plea by former Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries Commissioner Henry Mouton to conspiracy for accepting more than $460,000 in bribes from a rival landfill owner to lobby for Old Gentilly's closure. The rival landfill owner is not identified in court filings, but other documents indicate it is one of River Birch's co-owners, neither of whom has been charged with a crime.
Both Vitter and Inhofe, the top Republican on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, which had jurisdiction over the landfill rider, received campaign contributions from Heebe. But both said through current and former aides that their motivation had nothing to do with campaign cash.
"There were number of citizen groups that expressed concerns at the time about hurricane debris in landfills causing long-term environmental problems," Bolar said. "Sen. Vitter thought that this language, that enforced already existing federal standards, addresses these concerns in a fair, reasonable way,"
Two former aides to Inhofe said his biggest motivation for intervening in the landfill dispute was his fear of liabilities if hurricane debris was dumped in a landfill not equipped to handle it.
The aides, who asked to remain anonymous because they weren't authorized to speak on the matter, said Inhofe at the time had already established himself as a leading congressional critic of high federal costs of Katrina response and recovery efforts.
During the debate over dumping at Old Gentilly, an Inhofe staffer provided internal government documents to The Times-Picayune to press the case about concerns for reopening the landfill.
Gordon Russell, now The Times-Picayune's city editor, said he was first contacted by Heebe and asked whether the newspaper would be willing to look at documents that revealed strong objections by Federal Emergency Management Agency officials to dumping hurricane debris at Old Gentilly. Russell, who was then a reporter for the paper, said he responded affirmatively.
Shortly thereafter, Russell said a staffer for Inhofe contacted him and made arrangements to send the documents. Russell said he examined the material -- mostly emails between FEMA employees -- and decided it wasn't nearly as conclusive or revealing as Heebe had described and therefore didn't use it for a story.
Inhofe spokesman Matt Dempsey acknowledged that "we did talk to people associated with Fred Heebe," but he added: "Was he the direct influence that had Inhofe look into this? No."
Dempsey said Heebe and his lobbyists weren't the only people who urged a closer look at Old Gentilly, noting that some environmental groups as well as members of New Orleans' Vietnamese community also pushed in that direction.
"What I can tell you is we thought it was a legitimate concern when we looked into it," Dempsey said.
As it turns out, the Vitter and Inhofe legislative rider had little effect because the owners of the Old Gentilly landfill had a conditional permit before Hurricane Katrina, something that wouldn't be known by a search of state databases. Therefore, the landfill met the technical requirements of the Vitter-Inhofe rider.
A lawsuit by the Louisiana Environmental Action Network later led to a consent decree that mandated some environmental upgrades at Old Gentilly.
In addition to the rider, Vitter and Inhofe added language to the 2007 water resources bill requesting a study of federal disaster debris removal policy related to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
Aaron Viles, deputy director of the Gulf Restoration Network, said Vitter, whom he contends has a "terrible" record on national environmental issues, has been much more responsive to local environmental concerns, not only on Old Gentilly but in pushing the closure of the Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet. The outlet was blamed for increasing flooding during Katrina and contributing to loss of vital wetlands and ecosystems that served as natural barriers to flooding.
By contrast, Viles said he's never known Inhofe, the Senate's leading critic of global warming warnings, to take what Viles would consider a pro-environmental position.
Vitter once urged President George W. Bush to appoint Heebe as U.S. attorney in New Orleans, a post that eventually went to Jim Letten, who is leading the probe of Heebe and his River Birch Co. But after Heebe withdrew his name following allegations of domestic abuse, Vitter strongly backed Letten, even threatening to hold up President Barack Obama's judicial nominees unless Letten was reappointed.
Vitter received two $10,000 contributions from Heebe and his wife, Jennifer Sneed, to help pay legal expenses that arose after disclosure that his name appeared on the phone list of a Washington escort service.
Heebe donated $13,500 to Vitter campaigns from 2000 to 2008. Inhofe's campaign received a $2,000 contribution from Heebe in 2008.
River Birch was an even bigger spender on lobbying Congress and the executive branch. In 2006, River Birch spent $480,000 on lobbying efforts in Washington, and another $440,000 in 2007, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
The landfill's interests were represented by some of Washington's most influential lobbying firms, the Livingston Group, Allbaugh Co. and DMC Consultors.
None of the lobbying firms' executives would comment directly on their work for River Birch. Former U.S. Rep. Bob Livingston, R-Metairie, who founded and heads the Livingston Group, said: "We always refer client inquiries directly to the client, and this would be no exception."
Calls to Heebe and River Birch were not returned.
In addition to getting a rider added to a water resources bill. Vitter, sometimes joined by Inhofe, wrote state and federal officials on more than one occasion to urge them not to approve sending hurricane debris to Old Gentilly.
Initially, Vitter and Inhofe listed environmental concerns as their primary reason for raising questions about Old Gentilly.
Later, Vitter cited the hidden financial interests in the Old Gentilly Landfill allegedly held by two former friends of Mayor Marc Morial, one of whom pleaded guilty to getting a city contract that didn't require meaningful work. Those interests surfaced in a "counter letter" prosecutors filed in federal court in 2007.
"The extraordinary 2005 hurricane season clearly requires an extraordinary debris management plan," Vitter wrote in a letter weeks later. "However, it does not require extraordinary contacts to felons, extraordinary payments to landfill operators, or extraordinary risks to our citizens."
Old Gentilly's owners have maintained that the two Morial pals, Stan "Pampy" Barre and Roy Rodney, never actually acquired a stake in the landfill.
Garret Graves, one of Vitter's top aides during the debate over the 2007 water resources bill and now the top coastal restoration aide to Gov. Bobby Jindal, wouldn't respond to a question on the rider authored by his former boss and Inhofe.
"Due to the ongoing federal investigation, I have been advised by the Senate office of counsel not to comment," Graves said.
Graves, Russell and Inhofe staffer Charli Coon were identified as "lobbyists" on a list that federal investigators seized from River Birch. The list included nearly three dozen lawyers, consultants, journalists, political officials and some who are registered as lobbyists. Graves, Russell and most of the other non-lobbyists on the list said they did no lobbying for Heebe or his landfill.
Bruce Alpert can be reached at balpert@timespicayune.com or 202.450.1406.