LAKE CHARLES, La. (KPLC) – The Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) is investigating complaints this week from some residents about illegal dumping at night.

Although it seems suspicious, the landowner has another explanation.

The sight of dump trucks carrying garbage late at night may seem suspicious to many people.

Off River Road, it may seem like it, but it was to help the Port of Lake Charles move the railroad tracks on Sallier Street from just west of Lake Street to the Port.

Authorities say the work should be done at night to prevent disruption of trains running during the day.

Stanley Caldarera, owner of the property on River Road, explains that he allowed the Port developer to use his property as storage space.

“There are Sallier projects where they shift the railway tracks from south to north and they can only do this at night because of the train. We gave them an area to use and it was supposed to be done by 10, 11 o’clock, but they went in a little bit more than they needed to and it took a little bit longer into the night,” Caldarera said.

Caldarera says he has developed the land and plans to build four custom homes there in a project called Our Time Properties.

“You want to keep building this because of the flood elevation while you’re trying to make it comply with FEMA requirements,” he said, which he said is currently 10 feet.

“These will be sold to individuals, there will be individual lots that people can buy across the street with a bay on the water side so they can have a house on one side and a boathouse shed on the other side,” Caldarera said.

Many in the community remember the area south of River Road being used as a landfill in the 1960s and perhaps the 1970s. Meanwhile, port officials expect the work on the rails to continue for another day or two.

“This (landfill) was actually on the south side of the road from where you turn onto River Road west all the way to the river, it was a total dump at the time,” he said. “In the past, the municipality used to dump garbage here; city, state, and neighborhood would come and dump everything here. And this is a tree behind me that I dug up, so this is all backfilled.”

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