River Birch, the dominant landfill operator in the New Orleans area and a heavyweight in local politics, is preparing to expand its landfill footprint into St. Charles Parish.

In July St. Charles parish council approved the company’s request to rezone a 93-acre parcel north of US 90 adjacent to River Birch-owned property in Jefferson Parish for industrial use.

Dominick Fazzio, River Birch’s chief financial officer, told St. Charles Parish Planning Commission that the company hopes to expand its existing 499-acre landfill in Jefferson to St. The Charles property.

That expansion is still a long way off. River Birch will need a variety of permits from the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality, as well as approval from the St. Charles Parish Council, before it can use the site as a dumping ground.

The 93-acre property was once part of the Greater New Orleans Landfill, which opened in the 1960s and stopped accepting trash in 1999. Fazzio said they will rely on state regulators to tell them what to do with the old rubbish on the site, which was covered with mud.

“River Birch’s plan for the future includes significantly upgrading the landfill by installing liners, thereby limiting future runoff,” said William Kearny, River Birch spokesman.

River Birch’s plan to turn the property into an active landfill came as a surprise to Randy Young, who owns Ragin Cajun Airboat Tours, which operates tours of the marshes bordering the parcel.

“If they expand, we have to close,” he said in an interview.

Ragin Cajun had about 78,000 customers last year, Young said, adding, “I’m not going to take them for a ride in a dump.”

Dominant power

River Birch has re-emerged as a dominant force in the lucrative world of garbage collection and waste management in recent years.

2022, Jefferson Parish approved an overall landfill management agreement with River Birch allowing the company to merge the day-to-day operations of its privately owned landfill with the adjacent parish-owned landfill next door.

And in 2023, Jefferson Parish awarded River Birch its bi-weekly garbage collection contractworth up to $38.6 million annually.

The contracts were significant markers in the return and rehabilitation of River Birch in Jefferson Parish, a year-long process that dates back to 2009, when its $160 million landfill contract with the parish imploded and took over the administration of the former Parish President Aaron Broussard with the.

River Birch is owned by Fred Heebe and Jim Ward, both frequent players in Louisiana politics who have poured thousands of dollars into political contests.

St. Charles Parish has an existing agreement with River Birch for twice weekly curbside garbage collection. At its meeting on July 22, St. Charles Parish Council to increase residents’ trash to $21.19 per month, a $2 increase, starting in August.

In June, St. signed Charles Parish Council a separate agreement with River Birch which allows the parish to dispose of the waste collected from its residents at its landfill until 2034.

St. Charles Parish President Matthew Jewell spoke in favor of the rezoning request for the 93-acre parcel at the Planning Commission meeting. He said having a “low-cost alternative” landfill nearby will benefit the parish and will prevent the parish from having to haul its waste elsewhere, according to meeting minutes.

St. Charles previously had the property zoned as wetlands, but that does not necessarily mean there are federally recognized wetlands on site.

A spokesperson for the US Army Corps of Engineers said River Birch would need to provide a wetlands jurisdiction determination to determine if a permit for the proposed project is required. A River Birch spokesman said the site does not have federally protected wetlands.