Melinda Deslatte / Associated Press

BATON ROUGE-- A bill aimed at closing a heavily disputed landfill handling hurricane debris in eastern New Orleans and shuttling the moldy remnants of flooded homes to other, existing dumps received approval Tuesday from a Senate committee.

The state's Department of Environmental Quality says the shutdown of the Chef Menteur landfill would delay cleanup after Hurricane Katrina, stymie reconstruction and raise the costs of debris removal because the discarded material would have to be trucked miles away.

"You cannot rebuild until you clean up," said Chuck Carr Brown, a DEQ assistant secretary.

But environmentalists and the Vietnamese-American residents who live near the site say the dump threatens to contaminate groundwater and a nearby wildlife refuge, sidestepped the traditional permitting process and hinders the rebuilding efforts in the area.

"We should not cause an even greater catastrophic impact on families, on our communities that are trying to rebound and rebuild," said Cynthia Willard-Lewis, a New Orleans City Council member and supporter of the bill.

New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin and DEQ approved the Chef Menteur landfill under emergency procedures that circumvented some of the normal zoning and input processes. City and state officials said the dump would not contaminate the area because it is taking in only certain materials that aren't hazardous.

Supporters of the bill, however, said the state should not create new landfills if others already exist that can handle the bricks, drywall and other discarded interiors of homes flooded by Katrina.

The measure, sponsored by several senators and approved by the Senate Environmental Quality Committee, would require DEQ to determine the space available in landfills in St. Bernard, St. Charles, Plaquemines, Jefferson and Orleans parishes that could handle Katrina debris.

If there is enough capacity at existing landfills to handle the trash caused by the storm, DEQ would be unable to permit new landfills in the parishes for Katrina debris and the Chef Menteur landfill would have to shut down.

The Chef Menteur dump is 100 acres and can grow up to 80 feet high. Waste Management, the landfill operator, has agreed to give the city 22 percent of the landfill's revenues. Opponents of the dump said that payment has discouraged the city from looking at other available dump sites in the New Orleans area that might be able to take the Katrina debris.

Rev. Vien Nguyen, pastor of Mary Queen of Vietnam Catholic Church, told the committee that the residents who live one mile from the landfill weren't given the chance to fight the project after Katrina. He questioned whether the dump was a deliberate effort to stifle recovery in heavily flooded New Orleans East.

However, the bill would allow local governing authorities to refuse to take in storm debris from other parishes if they choose, after Sen. Chris Ullo, D-Harvey, said he didn't want Jefferson Parish forced to take New Orleans' trash from Katrina unless local officials agreed.

It's unclear where the trash would go if the Chef Menteur dump was closed.

Sen. Derrick Shepherd, D-Marerro, a sponsor of the bill, said landfills in Plaquemines, Jefferson and St. Tammany parishes have available space. Brown, the DEQ assistant secretary, said the St. Tammany and Plaquemines parish landfills are nearly full.

"Nobody wants it in their backyard," said Judy McCleary, representing Waste Management.

(Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)