Fort Smith’s waste credits under scrutiny

State aims to find if recycling rewards improperly claimed; records deadline June 1

Dingman said the city has made incorrect claims for waste reduction credits, ‘but it was not done in a deceitful manner.’

FORT SMITH — The Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality is reviewing whether the city has claimed department credits for diverting recyclable material from the landfill that actually ended up there.

The department is waiting for Fort Smith to submit landfill waste reduction credit records, a review prompted by media reports, according to an email from the department.

“ADEQ is awaiting information from the city of Fort Smith at this time,” spokesman Kelly Robinson wrote. “No accusations have been made.”

Deputy City Administrator Jeff Dingman said Thursday the city’s deadline for submitting the records is June 1.

Dingman said the city has made incorrect claims for waste reduction credits, “but it was not done in a deceitful manner.”

He said the staff doesn’t believe the city owes the state money for incorrectly claimed waste reduction credits. He said the amount in dispute is “a few thousand dollars.”

Dingman said the city inadvertently claimed credits for recyclable material collected to be recycled but ended up being dumped into the city’s landfill. Fort Smith has a curbside recycling program where residents put material to be recycled in separate containers picked up by separate sanitation trucks.

According to the state, the landfill in Fort Smith has received waste reduction credits by removing reusable or recyclable material from the waste trucks as they cross the scales and deducting that weight from the disposable tonnage to gain credits. The waste reduction credits are applied at the landfill when recycled material is removed from the disposal stream.

Dingman said the waste reduction credit is the discount of a $2.50 per ton dumping fee the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality charges for dumping waste in landfills.

Fort Smith has been dumping at least some of the material collected to be recycled into the landfill since September 2014. Dingman said he didn’t know how long the practice had gone on.

Dingman attributed some of the problems with the credit claims on the chaos in the city’s Sanitation Department administration. Former department Director Baridi Nkokheli was fired in December 2015 and the landfill administrative coordinator resigned.

The Sanitation Department was run by the Parks and Recreation Department director while a new sanitation director was sought, Dingman said. Mark Schlievert was hired to head the department in April 2016. He was fired May 10.

Schlievert and new Sanitation Department staff members met with state environmental quality officials in May 2016, Dingman said, to clarify the proper way to fill out the quarterly waste tonnage reports the city submitted to the department each quarter.

Since that time, he said, the city hasn’t claimed any waste reduction credits.

The environmental quality department issued a statement this week saying for calendar year 2016, Fort Smith’s landfill received 248,237 tons of trash, reported waste reductions of 4,570 tons and paid $366,237 or $1.50 per ton, in disposal fees.

The statement didn’t say how much the city received in waste reduction credits.

According to the state, the review began around May 4 by the office of land resources.

It started four days after Fort Smith officials announced the city hadn’t been recycling material set out by residents but had been dumping it in the landfill with other solid waste.

Initially, officials said the recyclable material had been dumped in the landfill since November. Later it was determined at least some of the recyclable material collected had been dumped in the landfill since September 2014, when the city’s contract with a recycling company expired.

Residents and city directors expressed anger and disappointment city officials waited so long to announce efforts by residents to separate their recyclables and trash had been wasted.

Since then, city officials have put together proposals from recycling companies to provide recycling services for Fort Smith.

In a meeting Tuesday, city directors heard reports from Dingman and City Administrator Carl Geffken about proposals from two recycling companies to accept the city’s recycled material at locations in or near Fort Smith.

One is from Marck Industries of Cassville, Mo., which proposed to take and process the city’s recyclables in downtown Fort Smith or, possibly, near the city’s landfill. Under the proposal, the city would pay nearly $246,000 over a three-year contract.

The other company, Third Rock Recycling of Webb City, Mo., proposed finding a site in Fort Smith for a bailing machine to process recyclable material. Company officials proposed the city partner with them by buying a sorting machine, then create an arrangement in which the city would earn nearly $100,000 a year, after an initial equipment investment.

City directors are scheduled to consider contracting with one of the companies at their June 6 meeting.