Judge ruling finds Veolia competitor, sued for drone flyover, in contempt of court

A South Arkansas hazardous waste treatment company was found in contempt of court in an ongoing lawsuit by a local competitor, a Clark County judge ruled.

Depositions had been set in the matter of Elementary Environmental Solutions vs. Clean Harbors Environmental Services, the latter of which has reportedly refused to give sworn pre-trial testimony by a court-ordered deadline of April 2024.

The lawsuit was filed in October 2023, weeks after a top official of Veolia documented a competitor operating a drone over its chemical storage facility in Gum Springs. Photographs of the drone flyover and its operator were taken in the “ordinary course of business and for the purpose of protecting sensitive information and facilities,” the original complaint notes.

According to court documents, the Clean Harbors employee told Veolia officials at the scene that he had been instructed to conduct aircraft surveillance of the Veolia property. Clean Harbors operates a chemical treatment facility, similar to Veolia’s, in El Dorado.

Arkansas law defines unlawful use of a drone as when the operator knowingly uses it to conduct surveillance of, gather evidence or collect information about, or photographically or electronically record critical infrastructure without the prior written consent of the owner of the critical infrastructure.

Numerous filings have since been made in the civil case, the most recent of which was 9E Circuit Judge Blake Batson’s order on a pair of motions brought by both parties. Elemental Environmental Solutions (Veolia) filed a motion for contempt in April, days after a deadline that had been set in February for depositions to be held. Conversely, Clean Harbors filed a motion for a protective order; that motion was denied.

Batson’s ruling notes that Clean Harbor’s apparent refusal to submit to deposition marks the second time the Massachusetts-based company has been in contempt of court during these proceedings.

The judge sanctioned Clean Harbors, ordering the company to pay an as-yet determined fine for its contempt of court.