The “No littering,” and “$3,000 fine” signs that ornament Highway 90 near Jefferson Parish’s landfills appear to go unnoticed, or at least unenforced, allowing the littered shoulders to remain trashed a little longer.
As St. Charles Parish’s contract monitor, Tut Clement’s department oversees the parish’s contract with Coastal Waste Services, but a spokesperson for the office says that Highway 90 is a Louisiana highway, therefore it’s the state’s responsibility to keep it clean.
“We monitor the routes and residential areas that Coastal Waste serves,” said Chandra Sampey, administrative assistant for the department. “But we are not required to monitor the litter near the landfills.”
Many residents feel that recent construction to the Huey P. Long Bridge is what’s forcing out-of-parish garbage trucks to change their routes and travel through St. Charles Parish via I-310 and Sampey agrees.
“I would definitely say that the bridge construction has a lot to do with the garbage trucks traveling on I-310 to Highway 90 from Jefferson Parish,” she said. “That route has been a normal route for many waste companies since Hurricane Katrina, but the construction has forced others to detour their routes through St. Charles Parish.”
As far as enforcing Louisiana’s no-litter laws, that’s a responsibility for both local and state law enforcement agencies. And St. Charles Parish Sheriff Greg Champagne says that roadside litter is a major concern for his deputies.
“We receive no state funding of any kind for litter,” said Sheriff Greg Champagne. “At my office’s expense, we send inmates to clean Highway 90 out to the Jefferson Parish line at Pier 90.
“We clean it completely about once per month, but as soon as one week after, it looks trashed again. Garbage trucks, industrial and work trucks are who I believe to be the culprits of litter in that area, but citizens also throw trash in this area with a lack of concern for the environment.”
Champagne says that these citizens probably feel that because it is an uninhabited stretch of highway, that it doesn’t matter.
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