Community informational meeting on Anthony Timberlands incident hosted at ASU Three Rivers
A large crowd showed up to the ASU Three Rivers campus on Tuesday afternoon to attend a public informational meeting, coordinated through multiple state agencies, regarding the pollution incident in Town and Chatman Creeks involving the Anthony Timberlands pine lumber sawmill on Cabe Avenue in Malvern.
Officials who addressed the audience were the newly-appointed Director and Chief Administrator of the the Arkansas Dept. of Energy and Environment, Division of Environmental Quality (DEQ), Caleb Osborne; ADEQ, Office of Water Quality (OWQ) Associate Director, Alan York; Patrick Fisk, Director of the Livestock and Poultry Division of the Arkansas Dept. of Agriculture and his associate, State Veterinarian, Dr. John Nilz; Dr. Jennifer Dillaha, Director of the Arkansas Dept. of Health; and Jason Olive, Chief of Fisheries Management with the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission.
Each official rep took turns explaining their agency’s unique role, and their relative movements pertaining to the initial and ongoing investigation of the incident. Osborne gave a brief introduction, then York initiated the presentation by explaining ADEQ’S parameters of operation and sharing the bulk of information, starting with a timeline of events surrounding the incident.
“In February of 2022, we got an online complaint that, admittedly, was not followed up on by our agency,” York said. “That really, really showed a failure of our system as it exists, and we are working to address that so that that doesn’t happen in the future, so that every complaint is followed up on.”
On Sept. 2, 2022, his agency received a complaint of a suspected sewer leak. “Sewer leaks are not uncommon occurrences in and around municipalities in the state, or any state,” York said. “Oftentimes, it’s associated with significant rainfall that overwhelms a sanitary sewer system, and you’ll have manholes that are flooded and water coming out, and et cetera.”
After referring to the local municipality, city officials informed ADEQ that they had inspected their system and found no leaks or discharges in the sewer system. More complaints came in Sept. 12, and inspectors began their onground investigation of the area on Sept. 13, 2022.
“We also on the same day got a complaint regarding a discharge to what I refer to as the concrete ditch, which is the drainage ditch that runs alongside the Anthony Timberlands facility and drains a portion of the City of Malvern’s stormwater,” York said.
“What we did not realize at that initial date was that there was a connection between Town and Chatman Creeks,” York said, projecting a satellite view of the sawmill and outlying areas to show the audience a broad overview of the impacted area. The concrete ditch leads to the unnamed tributary, which flows into Town Creek.
“At that point, it was unknown what the discharge was,” York continued while projecting several photos of polluted water, taken during the initial investigation, noting that the water’s observable conditions changed as investigators moved upstream.
“At the day that we first got here, we did not have an answer to what we were seeing. We knew we had at least five water conditions that we were encountering, and we didn’t know if we had one problem, two problems, three problems, four problems, or five problems,” York said.
On Sept. 14, compliance staff took samples from seven different locations to conduct water and soil tests. Two days later, ADEQ conducted an inspection of the Anthony Timberlands-malvern facility. On Sept. 22, OWQ Compliance Branch Manager Jason Bolenbaugh emailed Wilson Anthony to inform them of their concerns and request corrective measures from the company.
“So, at this point we knew we had a problem with Anthony Timberlands-malvern. What we did no know was whether that was the problem,
or the only problem,” York said.
“On September 29, we sent a more formal Interim Measures Request,” he said. “We followed that up as we learned more as the sampling events and sample results got back to us, with a supplemental Interim Measures Request for those downstream impacts.”
Anthony Timberlands responded to the request on Oct. 3, 2022. “On October 6 they began providing daily updates to ADEQ regarding the work being done,” York said. “On October 14, we received notification that EPA Region 6 was sending an assessment team to Malvern to take a look at the incident.” EPA issued a Statement of Work to Anthony Timberlands on Oct. 17.
According to the timeline, Anthony Timberlands continued their cleanup efforts straight through the end of 2022, and a final walk-through of the facility was conducted by EPA Region 6 officials on Jan. 26, 2023. “And Anthony Timberlands is released from their Statement of Work and then is covered by the Remediation and Maintenance Plan that was worked through from October until in January and finalized there in mid-january,” York said.
“So. I imagine most folks are saying, ‘well, what now?’ Well, the things that I can tell you is that Anthony Timberlands, for their operations to continue in the manner that they currently exist, are going to have to get multiple additional water permits and land permits,” York said.
“We also, as I mentioned earlier, we have a particular circumstance in this, where the concrete ditch is, where it is particularly prone to sanitary sewer overflows from the Malvern sewer collection system. So, we have instituted additional oversight of the Malvern sewer collection system and are requiring additional downstream testing after they have a sanitary sewer overflow,” he said.
The remediation and maintenance plan is 150-some-odd pages of detail about the work that’s to be conducted, but in simple terms, it involves soil sampling, sediment sampling, water sampling, and then remediation,” York said. “Remediation will namely be in the soils, there will be excavation where that is appropriate, monitoring and natural attenuation where that is appropriate, and manual removal of material as I’m sure most of you have seen the boons in the streams to collect any residual oil that is flushed loose.”
York also broke down the results from the most recent round of soil and water samples taken at various locations around the impacted area near the end of February. “These latest results are promising, they’re showing improving water quality,” he said.
“Chromium and nickel have been detected, but they’re below water quality standards,” he said, adding that copper levels have been high. but the chemists have questions about the readings because the blank sample that was expected to come back “clean” also came back indicating copper. “That’s something we’re still looking at,” York said.
Zinc levels were slightly elevated compared to the background level previously recorded at their ambient water quality site. “Currently, zinc violates the water quality standards,” York said.
Lead was not detected anywhere in the most recent tests, except in sample taken near the unnamed tributary along the South Walco bridge, referred to in the paperwork as AT7. “Cobalt is elevated slightly against the background samples, but there’s no aquatic or human health criteria available to evaluate cobalt,” York said.
“And I think this will probably be welcome news to the folks who are involved in cattle ranching, the water results in February do not exceed the criteria for the water for beef cattle reference document from the U of A, so that is a positive,” York said.
However, the latest results from the soil samples are less promising. “They are telling us that there are areas of known off-site contamination, primarily in that immediately-downstream wetland area,” York said, referencing an area immediately west of South Walco Road adjacent to the unnamed tributary.
“Remediation using excavation has begun in that area,” York said, stating that the soil in that area was removed and carted off. “Nature and extent investigations will continue with soil sampling, to determine how far that soil remediation needs to progress.”
Dr. Jennifer Dillaha from the Arkansas Dept. of Health spoke briefly to the audience, stating first that this event primarily falls under the ADEQ’S purview. “The Arkansas Department of Health’s role is to monitor public drinking water in the state and to assure that the drinking water that is produced and distributed by public health systems is safe to drink,” she said.
“To achieve that goal, we collaborate with other state agencies, as we’re doing here, and we review environmental data for potential public health risks, as well as provide resources to communities for you all to make informed decisions about your family’s health and well-being,” Dillaha said.
“We have reviewed the data for potential public health risk exposures, and based on the data that we have reviewed and analyzed, we did not find any elevated levels of contamination for either heavy metals or hydrocarbons, which is one of the chemicals that exist from the contamination,” Dillaha said. “So, we don’t have a concern now that the event from a drinking water or water contact point of view will cause adverse health effects to the general population.”
Next to address the audience was Patrick Fisk with the Dept. of Agriculture, to address concerns about the state of wildlife and cattle that have been impacted.
“Our main role as a state agency, or regulatory agency, is disease control—monitoring, evaluating, eradicating diseases. We do play a very small role in food safety,” Fisk said, adding his office came on in an advisory role after one of the cattle owners first contacted their office last summer to inquire about the rules and regulations he needed to follow if his cattle had been exposed to pollutants in their primary drinking source.
Fisk’s office took more interest after learning at a community meeting held in early January 2023 that over 1,700 head of cattle might have to be euthanized because of the incident.
“That’s when we felt like we needed to get involved at that point,” he said.
Fisk said that despite having a good working relationship with the USDA, his department has been unable to get clear answers for the livestock owners regarding whether their cattle are safe to eat or sell at market.
“We have not been able to get that answered directly, we’re still pursuing that,” Fisk said. “We’re still in the process of that, but we don’t know how long that’s going to take.”
Fisk reiterated that his office is doing all they can but that they have no regulatory say-so and cannot provide the answers the cattle owners need without more feedback from the USDA’S Food Safety and Inspection Service.
“That’s kind of where we’re at, at this point with the Department of Agriculture, just as an arbitrary role, trying to help out the best we can, but we do not have regulatory or any kind of mandates involved in this situation,” Fisk said.
Jason Olive with the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission took the podium next to explain that his office focuses on conservation of fish and game and their habitats and act as co-trustees with ADEQ in that regard.
“We’ve been working with other groups to develop a natural resource and damage assessment plan, to determine the extent of the impacts to the wildlife, both aquatic and terrestrial, and impacts to their habitats resulting from the spill,” Olive said. “Once these assessments are completed, we will come up with recommendations for restoration actions to be implemented to return the injured natural resources to their pre-spill conditions and that additional monitoring continue longterm as necessary, and so we’re in the development phase of those plans at this point in time.”
Citizens in attendance were asked to write any questions they had on cards and pass them to ADEQ staff who were circling the room waiting to receive them, but citizens in attendance also wanted the chance to speak and converse back and forth with the officials, and the comments kept coming aloud from many people in the audience who were not satisfied with the information they were being given.
One audience member asked why the facility was being allowed to operate without the proper permits, stating that there is still visible sheen in the water and that it appears that the active contamination has not ceased. York said the concrete ditch receives stormwater drainage from a significant portion of the city of Malvern, and the presence of sheen is not specifically indicative of petroleum.
“So, part of the particular complications that we’re dealing with in this circumstance is, this doesn’t just receive flow from Anthony Timberlands. So, if there is a discharge from Anthony Timberlands that’s in exceedance of their permit and demonstrated to do so, then they’ll be subject to enforcement action.”
Some audience members scoffed after one person who will be taking the samples for testing and being informed that the tests are conducted by a third party company that is contracted by Anthony Timberlands.
“These are third-party environmental contractors, this is not their only rodeo,” York said.
Other citizens in attendance voiced their suspicions that the soil excavation that was supposed to take place recently was not done properly, because the roll-off carts that were previously on-site were removed weeks ago. They also voiced concerns that very few TAS employees have been seen working in the impacted area lately, although none of the officials in attendance could really speak to these concerns but only go off the information they’ve received in periodic updates from the facility.
One written question asked if the point source origin of some of the heavy metals seen in testing samples, particularly lead, chromium and zinc, could be attributed to the Anthony Timberlands facility’s boilers and associated piping.
“We’re speaking in hypotheticals, so could it be? Sure,” York said. “We have looked at the facility because of its lack of the required permits that it should have, to have the additional permit coverage and the additional treatment needed for what comes off the facility.”
Osborne addressed a question about enforcement actions, saying that the Office of Water Quality is immersed in the remediation phase and will address any violations and subsequent enforcement actions after their primary focus moves from the remediation.
It was also revealed that two other Anthony Timberlands facilities were visited last week by EPA Region 6 staff in addition to the Malvern lumber mill, but state officials could not say for sure which two facilities were on that list.
Several people spoke up about their cattle dying and mentioned liver tests that indicate elevated amounts of heavy metals in the deceased animals. State veterinarian, Dr. John Nilz, responded that liver values from the tests he had seen came back within normal parameters in the cattle that were sampled, and he asked any cattle producers who had gotten their own tests done to share those results with him, so that he could pursue additional input and clarification.
“More samples need to be taken, more necropsies need to be taken to look at these animals and determine what’s going on,” Nilz said.
Cattle owners in attendance informed the others that they have taken their animals to market for sale and USDA inspectors would not allow them to sell the animals, or even take them back home from the processing plant. Nilz did not have an easy answer, saying that questions about the cattle’s safety for consumption or saleability at market must be forwarded to the Food Safety and Inspection Service.
All public information, including test results and weekly updates from the Anthony Timberlands-malvern facility related to their current remediation efforts, can be found on the ADEQ website. Hardcopy formats of the data are available at the HSC Judge’s Office and the HSC Dept. of Emergency Management.