Cotton talks stump dump with EPA

Senator asks for $15 million from acting adminstrator

BELLA VISTA — U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton on Tuesday asked the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for around $15 million to help snuff out an underground fire at an abandoned stump dump, a Cotton spokesman said Wednesday.

There wasn’t a date or a deadline discussed during the meeting, James Arnold, Cotton’s press secretary, said in an email.

Cotton, R-Dardanelle, told acting EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler about $15 million would greatly help the state. The two discussed which EPA program may be available to help Bella Vista, with both monitoring and remediation at the site, Arnold said.

Cotton toured the site on Friday. He said afterward his main concerns were public health, costs associated with the cleanup and putting out the fire and accountability.

Cotton discussed with Wheeler the effect the fire has had on nearby residents of the Trafalgar Road fire, according to Arnold.

“From kids not being able to play outside to folks developing respiratory problems, I told him that my greatest concern was the public health of Arkansans,” said Cotton. “Now that Mr. Wheeler knows the full extent of the problem, I’m hopeful that the EPA will continue to explore all possible options to help the state of Arkansas and the town of Bella Vista.”

Federal assistance is necessary because cost estimates to extinguish the fire and clean up the site exceed

the $7.9 million the state has available in its response fund, Donnally Davis with the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality previously said.

The cost of the work could be between $21 million and $39 million, Gov. Asa Hutchinson has said.

Mayor Peter Christie on Wednesday said he was very appreciative of the work being done by federal and state legislators to secure money to clean up the site and put out the fire. He mentioned state Sen. Jim Hendren, R-Gravette, has been to the site three times.

Third District Rep. Steve Womack, R-Rogers, also reached out to the EPA in late January. Womack sent a letter to the environmental agency and Federal Emergency Management Agency requesting

information on what federal resources might be available to support emergency action plans related to resolving the fire, according to a news release from his office.

Womack has both spoken with EPA Region 6 officials and received a response to his letter, press secretary Alexia Sikora wrote in an email Wednesday.

“The EPA informed him that the threshold required to initiate an emergency under federal laws has not been met at this time,” Sikora said. “That being said, the EPA continues to work with our office as it considers other possible federal assistance options. They also continue to support air monitoring and technical efforts on the ground in support of ADEQ efforts.”

Smoke continues to billow from various underground pockets at the site of the former stump dump.

Environmental Quality continues to monitor the air at two locations near the fire. An unhealthy reading in December prompted the state to caution everyone within a half-mile radius of the 8000 block of Trafalgar Road to avoid prolonged or heavy exertion outdoors.

The Environmental Protection Agency tested air quality on and near the site for three days last week, Davis said. The EPA used one monitor on-site and five air monitors within one-fourth of a mile of the site, she said. The results will help determine baseline air quality data.

Two days of particulate matter testing from four offsite locations showed an air quality index of good, according to an email from Davis on Wednesday. The other off-site location had an equipment malfunction, but it is located near Fire Station No. 2 where the state already has a testing site, the email stated. Air monitoring also was done on-site and off-site for chemicals of concern. Those results are expected in the next couple of weeks, Davis said.

Christie said residents continue to ask what the city is doing to put out the fire.

“ADEQ is in charge,” he said. “People think the city should come up with a solution, but we don’t have that expertise.”

The city is helping in other ways, though, Christie said.

The city has approached some churches about opening relief shelters, and he said 12 residents opened their homes

to people who live near the fire. Christie said he didn’t know if anyone had accepted those offers yet. He also said the city has been in contact with Lowe’s about possibly getting air filters at a discounted price for residents who live near the site.

First United Methodist Church at 20 Boyce Drive opened a relief center three weeks ago, but no one has used it yet, church secretary Janet Walton said Wednesday. The center is open from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Thursday and from 8 a.m. to noon Friday. The church doesn’t serve meals, but there is Wi-Fi available and a place to get away from the smoke, she said.

City workers moved stormwater culvert Wednesday, Christie and Davis said. Sloughing and erosion suggest the culvert drains directly into the site. Moving the culvert will cut off a source of oxygen to the underground fire and

will prevent contamination of stormwater runoff, Davis said.

Firefighters were dispatched July 29 to the area on Trafalgar Road, where they spotted smoke and what appeared to be the remains of a brush fire, said Steve Sims, Bella Vista fire chief. Fire Department personnel have said the fire may be burning more than 50 or 60 feet underground.

Tom Judson, the Bella Vista Property Owners Association’s chief operating officer, has said the association operated the dump on leased land from December 2003 to 2016, when it was covered with soil.

Nobody monitored the site the last few years it was open, but staff members would remove trash when possible, Judson has said. The operation was closed Dec. 31, 2016, according to Bella Vista’s website. The property is owned by Brown’s Tree Care.

The cost of the work could be between $21 million and $39 million, Gov. Asa Hutchinson has said.