"Our short term goal is to reorganize the department and make it more efficient," said Riazul Mia, director of the Environmental Services Department which was created this year and for which he took the helm September 24 of this year. One of the most significant changes that has occurred since Mia was named director of ESD is that the hazardous material permitting division became part of the ESD. "It didn't belong in the Fire Department," Mia said, adding, "As I work on a reorganization of the whole department, I will reassign some duties so that some of the haz mat inspectors are cross-trained for other duties. We are working toward greater efficiency."
"The long term goal is to build a department that will become a tool for sustainable development for Laredo, a department that helps set the balance between development and the environment," Mia continued, adding, "You want to be able to develop in a time of such unprecedented growth, but you want development that obeys the ordinances of the City of Laredo and the laws of state and federal government."
Mia said that another short-term goal is to make it through the review and re-application for federal stormwater permitting.
Riazul Mia began his tenure with the City of Laredo in 1996. He is a civil engineer who graduated from Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology. He holds a Masters in Civil Engineering from Louisiana State University. He and his wife Nazneen have one son, Raonaq, 5.
In a recent interview, the director of the City's newest department had these points of view to share.
How is your department organized? How many employees are in Environmental Services?
Mia: We are a self-sufficient enterprise-funded department with a budget of about $2.2 million. We pay into the general fund like the utilities department does. Stormwater permitting fees generate about $1.4 to $1.5 million. At this time, hazardous materials permitting generates about $300,000 per year, but could generate more income once we finish evaluating and re-organizing that part of the department.
We are 20 employees, with four engineers including me. There are five inspectors in stormwater and three in haz mat permitting. We have one GIS technician, two office support staff, three technicians and two crews that drive the vacuum trucks that clean the storm drains.
Is that enough employees in the face of the unprecedented growth we are experiencing as a city?
Mia: If citizens cooperate, if they continue to be our eyes and ears in the community, 20 staff members is enough at this time.
What is the largest environmental onslaught we face as a city?
Mia: Illegal dumping is still the largest problem we look at. It doesn't seem to have slowed down, despite a good ordinance and all the efforts we have made to educate the general public and builders. There is a very lax court system in place and the fines are nominal for illegal dumping.
How will we address a court system that doesn't take the environment seriously?
Mia: The Citizens Environmental Advisory Committee will be interviewing the four candidates for Municipal Court Judge to better understand what their strengths and weaknesses are environmentally.
Elaborate a bit on the work of the Citizens Environmental Advisory Committee.
Mia: The work of that committee is very important. It is a venue for community input into city environmental policy. The members are appointed by City Council. They are the bridge between the citizens and the governing agency. Their work is to discuss ordinances, to write them with staff, and to review them. They will very soon be developing a tree-saving ordinance and a mechanism to protect woodlands. The Citizens committee will also review the haz mat permitting ordinance and put more teeth into it. They will look at the illegal dumping ordinance to see if
They have been a key part of the work to write the few environmental ordinances we have in place. like the five that manage hazardous materials, water pollution control, stormwater management, illegal dumping, and industrial stormwater.
They are very forward thinking and are now considering whether the Illegal dumping ordinance might be changed to make provisions to confiscate the vehicle of the illegal dumper.
Before this committee, there were no ordinances in place. You could dump your oil wherever you wished. Now we are regulating car washing facilities, where you can dump used oil, fuel discharges, industrial run-off, the proper disposal of construction rubble, and so on. Things that were common practices a few years ago are now in violation of city ordinances.
What is the status of the Bonugli dump, that massive toxic eyesore on the riverbanks along Meadow Street?
Mia: The Bonugli has been handed over to the Laredo Police Department. It is now a criminal investigation handled by them with the Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission.
Has the Household Hazardous Waste Collection been a success for your department?
Mia: It is the best program we have implemented, and it is especially important when you think that those toxic materials are not going into the landfill and are not being dumped on the watershed of the Río Grande or the creeks.
How does the work of Environmental Services integrate with the work of other city departments?
Mia: The multi-purpose Chacon Creek project is probably a perfect example of how city departments work together. We're all there --parks and recreation, ESD, code enforcement, public works, engineering. The project is also a model for how to treat a waterway, especially one that feeds into the river, so we are understanding that everything we do on Chacon Creek will affect siltation, turbidity, and pollutants that go into the river. We are considering all those things. It is a huge project that includes channelization and the removal of some homes. In the end, the work we will have done on the Chacon will be a win-win situation. It will become a recreational amenity and its use will thwart illegal dumpers who now use the creek. Its ponds will protect the river by filtering pollutants naturally.
We work with other city departments on a day to day basis. Our technicians are cross-trained as code enforcement inspectors. The environmental officers at Laredo P.D. have gone through the TNRCC criminal enforcement class which covers environmental criminal involvement and investigation training. One assistant city attorney has taken the training and two others are about to. We in environmental services do not have the authority to arrest, so we would need to have a police officer with us. We are doing more cases cooperatively with Laredo P.D., especially illegal dumping cases. State law changed September 1 to reflect that anyone who dumps more than five pounds of waste is looking at criminal prosecution. We have very good communication among departments so that we can work more quickly to solve environmental problems.
What are some of the environmental efforts you would like to see in place in Laredo?
Mia: We should be recycling concrete and steel in a big way, the way many cities do.
What has happened over the last couple of years that has made the environment move up on the City's priority list?
Mia: I think the grassroots efforts in city departments had to keep pushing it up. Those five ordinances come from a citizens committee and went to council for approval. We now have city management that wants to hear these things and that wants to hear of successes in the environment. If the City Manager doesn't support these efforts, we can't work at environmental protection.
What's on the radar screen for the environment in Laredo?
Mia: I think this will become a cleaner place in time. The more people know about the environment and what is being done with their money, the more they will care for it. Business owners and retailers need to clean their parking lots, not only of shopping debris but also of oil and auto fluids. That first flash of a hard rain, that first half-inch, basically gathers up all sediment that runs from defoliated construction sites, all the pesticides and fertilizers people use on their lawns, all the oil and transmission fluids on a mall parking lot, all the loose trash on streets and parking lots -- all of that ends up quickly in the river. If we could change the business, household, and vehicle maintenance habits that create those problems, we could change what goes into the river.