A state district judge held Louisiana's environmental quality department in contempt over the agency's failure to set aside money for its program to reduce the number of used tire piles.
Under the Department of Environmental Quality's waste tire fund, the agency pays for cleaning up waste tire sites and subsidizes businesses that dispose of old tires.
However, the department has alleged overbilling by one of the companies, Environmental Industries Recycling, which collects tires from Baton Rouge and processes them into strips for other state projects. The department began withholding payments in June, after discovering the alleged overbilling.
Judge Robin Free issued a temporary restraining order June 26 requiring that DEQ put money aside for the company until the matter is decided in court. A lawsuit filed by the company will be tried Aug. 13.
Free held the state agency in contempt Friday, saying he thought the companies' attorneys had provided sufficient notice to DEQ regarding the temporary restraining order.
Free said that money must be set aside. Otherwise, he said, there will be no money left to pay Environmental Industries Recycling if the company is found innocent of overbilling.
The judge ordered DEQ to place the June funds in escrow for Environmental Industries Recycling when money becomes available in the waste tire fund. Money for July also should be put aside for the company and the remainder distributed to the other tire processors, Free said.
The waste tire fund was created in 1993 when the state started collecting a $2 surcharge with the purchase of new tires. Associated Press