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Wastewater Enforcement: Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality and Farmerville Dental Office Enter into Settlement

The Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality (“LDEQ”) and NELA Dental of Farmerville, L.L.C., (“Mela”) entered into a November 14th Settlement addressing certain violations of the Louisiana statutes/regulations addressing wastewater discharges. See SA-ME-22-0019.

The Settlement provides that NELA owns and/or operates a dental office with a one cell oxidation pond for sanitary discharges in Farmerville, Louisiana.

NELA is stated to not have a Louisiana Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (“LPDES”) permit or any other authority to discharge pollutants to waters of the state.

The Settlement describes the alleged violations as including:

• Failure to submit a complete Application to Discharge to Waters of the State by operating a dental office that has a one cell oxidation pond for sanitary wastewater discharges and is subject to permitting requirements
• Causing and/or allowing a discharge of wastewater without a permit and/or other authority from LDEQ (An inspector is stated to have observed partially treated wastewater spilling over the southeast corner of the pond levee)

The Settlement puts forth a Compliance Order to address the alleged unauthorized discharges to waters of the state. Further, a civil penalty of $19,000 is assessed of which $1,110.95 is stated to represent LDEQ’s enforcement costs.

A copy of the Settlement can be downloaded here.

https://deq.louisiana.gov/assets/docs/General/Settlement_Agreements/2022/NelaDental0019_Final.pdf