Fire out, next step at stump dump is setting things right

BELLA VISTA — An engineering firm is working on a plan to restore the site of a former stump dump and return life to normal for its neighbors.

An underground fire at the dump burned for almost a year before it was extinguished last month. City firefighters discovered the flames on July 29 last year.

Putting out the fire was the first phase of the restoration. That phase also included site stabilization, according to the Bella Vista Property Owners Association’s website.

Remediation will be the next and final phase, officials said.

The Property Owners Association took over responsibility May 3 from the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality to extinguish the fire and restore the site. The department had named the association as a possible responsible party.

People who live near the site said the smell of smoke has mostly gone away, and they can get back to doing simple activities like working in the yard, sitting on the back patio or hanging clothes outside to dry.

On a recent sunny day, Wayland McKinney was working outside on his property not far from the dump site.

“It stunk so bad before, you could hardly go outside,” he said of the months the fire burned.

The association has not submitted its Phase 2 plan for review yet, Donnally Davis with the Environmental Quality Department said

Wednesday. The association has 60 days after the completion of Phase 1 to submit a site-restoration plan. The Environmental Quality Department will review the plan and offer comments on it to the association, she said.

Three contractors started work May 18 to put out the fire. The goal was to extinguish it within 30 days at a cost of about $4 million, said Tom Judson, the association’s chief operating officer.

According to an email from the association’s Kim Carlson, Judson said it is too early to know if the $4 million projection will cover everything. The association should know more late this week, she said.

A small amount of waste materials such as pipes, tires and mattresses found during excavation and processing are being stored until they can be taken to a permitted facility, according to the association website.

An engineering firm hired by the association continues to develop the Phase 2 plan, Carlson said in an email.

Judson provided an idea of what the site might look like after restoration in a video posted May 6 to the association website.

“So, let’s think about it a year from now, so we’ll have to have a cap over it,” he said. “We will grow vegetation. We have to try to return it to a by and large natural environment — trees growing down the road and so forth. So, our hope is that a year, two years, five years from now when people drive by that site they go, ‘Wow, that’s kind of a nice area.’ And maybe someone goes ‘and that’s where the fire was!’ and they go ‘really there was a fire there? It looks pretty nice now.’”

McKinney’s idea for the site was simple.

“Don’t use it as a dump again,” he said.

The association board of directors heard an update about the site at its June 27 meeting.

Some people living near the dump have filed a lawsuit, claiming that foul smoke hurt members of their families. The suit names the association and three other entities.

The association submitted claims to two insurance companies when the lawsuit was filed. The association changed insurance coverage in 2007. Scottsdale Insurance, now called Nationwide, insured the association until 2007, and Philadelphia Insurance, which insured the association from 2007-16, denied the request for coverage, Judson told the board.

The association filed a complaint against both companies.

It also filed a cross-complaint against the other defendants in the neighbors’ lawsuit — Tom Fredericks, Blue Mountain Storage, which Fredericks owned, Brown’s Tree Care and BTS Equipment, looking for reimbursement for the funds spent on putting out the fire.

The association operated the dump on leased land from December 2003 to December 2016, after which it was covered with soil, Judson said. No one monitored the site the last few years it was open, but workers would remove trash when possible, he said. The property is now owned by Brown’s Tree Care.

The board of directors also discussed the sale of 367 acres to Recasting LLC. The deal will probably close at the end of this month, and the association will receive the full appraised value of the land, $1.475 million, Judson said.

Part of that money will help pay for another stump-dump project. The west-side stump dump was ordered closed by the Department of Environmental Quality last July. The plan is to permanently seal the site. The contractor estimates that project will cost $326,200, which is higher than the amount budgeted by the association.