Just six weeks after the Metro Council unanimously approved an agreement with an environmental services firm to operate a tire shredder—purchased with federal grant funds—at no cost to the parish, several council members want to revisit the deal and, even, change the terms.
Council members Tara Wicker and Lamont Cole have introduced an item for discussion at the council’s Nov. 13 meeting to discuss the agreement between the city-parish Mosquito Abatement and Rodent Control district and Baum Environmental Services.
Under the terms of that deal, the shredder, which is being purchased with a federal grant from the Centers for Disease Control, will be located on MARC property near the airport.
Meanwhile, council member Chauna Banks, whose district includes MARC’s facilities, has scheduled a community meeting for Tuesday night to hear from experts about the plan. Though she says the gathering will be an informational session, not a protest, she is clear about her opposition to the shredder’s proposed location, which she fears will be another example of environmental injustice.
“I don’t care where they put it—just don’t put it in district two,” she says. “We’ve made enough sacrifices. We can’t get a grocery store. We can’t get middle-class housing. We can’t get a shopping center. We don’t want a tire stockade.”
Banks says she is concerned the facility will turn into a dump site, even though the purpose of Baum’s deal with the parish—indeed, the only way Baum will make money—is by efficiently shredding waste tires, which contribute to blight in underserved neighborhoods and serve as breeding ponds for disease-bearing mosquitoes.
Though it’s unusual for the council to revisit an agreement it approved unanimously just last month, only eight council members were present for that Sept. 11 meeting. Banks, Donna Collins-Lewis, Lamont Cole, and Erika Green were all attending the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation conference in Washington D.C. and missed the vote.
Wicker, who is also black but was not at the caucus event, joined her fellow council members in approving the deal with Baum so it is unclear why she is concerned now. She could not be reached for comment this morning.
But MARC Interim Executive Director Randy Vaeth says there is a lot of misinformation about how the shredder program will be operated. He says the site will not turn into a waste dump and is intended to help alleviate a problem that plagues the parish—particularly underserved communities where waste tires accumulate in vacant lots.
“To be fair, there has been a lot of dumping in underserved communities. I absolutely see that,” he says. “But I don’t think they have had the opportunity to hear from Baum about how they are going to prevent that kind of issue.”
Vaeth is concerned Baton Rouge, which is receiving the CDC grant through the Louisiana Department of Health, will lose the money if city-parish officials don’t begin developing the facility soon. The funds were awarded as part of a pilot program that, if successful could serve as a model for other communities.
“The CDC has positioned this as a pilot project,” he says. “If it would work here, if you could reduce this breeding source, then they may provide money to help other districts. That’s important.”
