Officials at Lake Charles City Hall have decided that Industrial Carbon Services can remain operating until the company exhausts its legislative options.

Industrial Carbon Services, at 2555 Industrial Ave., is at the center of a fire storm involving residents who live near the facility. Residents contend that a fine black dust that originates from the company’s property is a nuisance and is contributing to their health problems.

Recently, City Hall cited the company for failing to adhere to zoning laws.

As a result, the company filed a request with the city’s Planning and Zoning Commission. At the May 13 meeting, the property owner and company officials are expected to explain what they are doing to remedy the problem and hopefully obtain clearance to continue operating.

“A meeting was held with the owner of the property and business. We talked to them and let them know the city found them in violation of zoning laws,” said City Administrator John Cardone. “They had approval to operate a warehouse in one of the buildings on the property. We found out they were utilizing two other buildings that were not approved.”

If the commission decides the company should be granted zoning it needs to operate, residents may appeal that decision to the City Council. Also, the company itself could appeal to the council, if the commission doesn’t grant zoning approvals.

Cardone said the company is interested in meeting city standards.

“When we met with them, they said they felt they are putting provisions in place to either eliminate the dust or to have a situation where the dust is having a minimal impact on the neighborhood. That was their response,” he said. “We told them they need to convince the commission that operations will not negatively impact the residents.”

Industrial Carbon Services repackages petroleum coke, which is the cause of the dust.

Cardone said the city decided to move forward with its own zoning investigation, in lieu of the state Department of Environmental Quality’s review of Industrial Carbon Services’ operations.

On April 5, a state official conducted a follow-up visit with the company’s owners.

According to a DEQ document the visit was “to determine the operational status of the subject facility. At this time packaging has stopped inside of the east building; however coke is being stored inside of the building. There are plans to perform a test packaging run during the week of April 8, 2013. The dust collection system will be fully operational prior to testing and normal operation of the packaging process. Coke drying will continue to be performed inside of the building located between the storage building and the new packaging building.”

Cardone said residents should not think that the city has given up in trying to remedy the situation.

“They were operating for more than two years,” he said. “It was brought to our and the state’s attention just a couple of months ago.”

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