Foes file to stop rebuilding of dam
Group wants work halted on creek structure until suit heard
FAYETTEVILLE — Opponents of Bentonville’s plan to rebuild the Lake Bella Vista dam on Little Sugar Creek are asking a federal judge to halt the project until their lawsuit can be heard.
The Friends of Little Sugar Creek filed a motion Tuesday seeking a preliminary injunction in U. S. District Court. Friends of Little Sugar Creek is a nonprofit organization that advocates for the 100- year- old dam to be removed and the creek restored.
The group contends in the lawsuit that the dam is so degraded it would require complete reconstruction under a new permit, which would require public participation in the process.
“That the old dam is not currently serviceable and requires reconstruction is beyond dispute. It can no longer impound Little Sugar Creek because its gates are no longer operable. The stream is flowing through the inoperable gates and around or under portions of the structure,” according to the motion for injunction.
Opponents also say the work will disrupt the current flow of Little Sugar Creek and change its aquatic habitat.
The original, 21- page complaint was filed Dec. 21 against the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Federal Emergency Management Agency. It claimed the dam isn’t serviceable and therefore ineligible for federal money to rebuild it.
An amended, 31- page complaint filed last week added that a supplemental environmental assessment should have been done after December 2015 floods and that the Federal Emergency Management Agency failed to comply with Federal Council on Environmental Quality regulations to ensure that the agency doing the environmental assessment has no financial interest in the project’s outcome.
Both complaints say the city’s plans to rebuild the dam aren’t what officials told the Corps they intended to do. The city wants to change the type of gates, which would allow for the development of a water park downstream, according to the complaint.
Officials have said the dam replacement, funded by federal and state money, will cost $ 3.5 million. The lawsuit is tentatively set for trial on Feb. 12.