Emergency Debris Sites

The Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality (LDEQ) says emergency debris sites are locations that local governments or state agencies identify, and that LDEQ evaluates and approves, for managing debris generated by a disaster. LDEQ's Waste Permits Division says it helps communities during natural disasters by approving emergency debris locations in advance. LDEQ's Disaster Debris Management page ties the work to La. R.S. 30:2413.1 and to a comprehensive plan for disaster clean-up and debris management that LDEQ developed.

In a Phase I ESA

ASTM E1527-21 does not name emergency debris sites among its standard record sources. A property that served as one handled disaster debris for a time, and LDEQ's steps leave papers behind. Permitted landfills are a separate record, described on the Solid Waste Permitting page.

• A site is approved before it is used. LDEQ says that upon its declaration of an emergency, local governments and state agencies may "activate" a pre-approved emergency debris site. LDEQ says the governmental body must notify LDEQ Headquarters by phone, as soon as practicable depending on communication capability, and submit a Written Notification of Activation within five days.
• An active site reports every week. Once a site is activated, LDEQ asks for Weekly Debris Management Reports for vegetative debris and construction and demolition debris.
• Closing a site takes an inspection. LDEQ says that once the emergency declaration has ended or the site has completed all debris activities, the site is to be deactivated, by contacting the regional office for a deactivation site inspection and submitting a Written Request for Deactivation. Once Headquarters receives the inspection report and all the weekly reports, LDEQ says, a deactivation letter will be sent.
• A site can be used again. LDEQ says a site will be required to reactivate should another emergency occur. Ask for each activation notice, the weekly reports, the deactivation inspection report and the deactivation letter, since a site may have been activated more than once.
• The file can hold a SHPO form. LDEQ's request form for a site is an Emergency Debris Site (EDS) Request and SHPO Form. For existing pre-approved sites, LDEQ asks that the most recent SHPO approved form be included, and says a copy may be obtained from SHPO or from LDEQ's Electronic Document Management System.

During a declared emergency, LDEQ's page says the state can issue an Emergency Declaration and Administrative Order (DEAO) that lets LDEQ temporarily relax certain rules for facilities that already hold permits. It says a facility whose emergency activities cause long-term changes, or that wants to continue them after the emergency, must request a formal permit modification within six months after the Governor declares the emergency, unless the Department gives more time. For a permitted facility on or near the property, ask whether it operated under a variance.

Where to look a site up

• LDEQ's Disaster Debris Management page links Currently Approved Emergency Debris Sites without saying what it holds or whether sites no longer approved stay on it. The link was not opened for this handbook.
• LDEQ's Disaster Response Information page links its emergency declarations.
• For emergency debris sites, LDEQ gives deqdebrisrequest@la.gov and 225-364-7901.

Getting the file

LDEQ's routes to a file are its Electronic Document Management System, an online public records request form, and visits to its Public Records Center or a regional office. They are described on the Public Records Requests page.

Sources

Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality pages, read October 16, 2026, no modified date shown:

• Disaster Debris Management
• Disaster Response Information
• Waste Permits, read October 8, 2026
• Information & Records, read October 8, 2026