County’s hands tied in stump dump fire, official tells residents

BENTONVILLE — There is little Benton County can do to assist with a stump dump fire in Bella Vista despite pleas from some residents to lend a hand, County Judge Barry Moehring said.

The issue came up at a Bella Vista town hall at Riordan Hall on Feb. 15. The meeting was to discuss a special March 12 sales tax election to build a new courthouse in downtown Bentonville, but two residents questioned Moehring about why the county wasn’t doing anything to help the city.

The underground fire on Trafalgar Road has burned since late July.

Moehring gave the Benton County Quorum Court Committee of the Whole an update on the situation Tuesday night.

“We don’t have a fire department,” he told the court. “We can’t put out fires. We don’t have the capacity to put out the fire and deal with the remediation.

“It’s a unique situation. It’s in a city. It’s not in our jurisdiction. They are asking for relief anywhere they can. It’s a terrible situation. A lot of residents are frustrated and angry. I

understand that,” he said.

Residents were urged to avoid prolonged or heavy exertion outdoors in December after an unhealthy air quality reading. The state continues to caution everyone within a half-mile radius of the 8000 block of Trafalgar Road although recent air quality testing has shown results in the “good” range.

The county and officials from the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality and EnSafe did discuss building a needed access road at the site, Moehring said. EnSafe is a Memphis, Tenn.based company hired by the state to help put out the fire.

The access road is part of the site work that has to be finished before the fire can be extinguished.

Jay Frasier, who oversees the Road Department, and county engineer Josh Beam met with ADEQ and EnSafe representatives on Jan 24. Frasier and Beam also met with EnSafe on Feb. 7, Moehring said.

EnSafe provided Frasier and Beam with road specifications, and the cost estimate was $300,000, the judge said.

“Given the amount of dollars involved, and the subsequent impact on our road plan for 2019, I felt obligated to bring this project to the Quorum Court for approval, or at least acknowledgment, before proceeding,” he said Wednesday. “And before doing that, I knew one of the questions I would be asked was whether or not the county would be reimbursed for all or part of this project. I’ve had a few different conversations with ADEQ about this possibility.”

Moehring said he was told Wednesday morning that the state is now considering a different access road that will not require assistance from county.

The Road Department’s goal is for about 54 miles of paved road improvements in 2019, according to a plan presented to the Quorum Court’s Finance Committee in October. Of that, 28.3 miles will be asphalt overlay and chipand-seal paving work. Another 12.4 miles will be for crack sealing, and about 11.9 miles will be fog sealing.

Improvements are planned for 15 dirt roads, totaling about 10 miles of improvements, according to the 2019 plan. The county has more than 1,600 miles of road to maintain. Just more than half are paved.

Justice of the Peace Joel Edwards suggested putting the state’s Trafalgar Road website link on the Benton County Office of Emergency Management website page. The link was up and running by Wednesday morning.

“We are prepared to assist if there is a role for us to play,” Moehring said.

The cost to put out the

“We are prepared to assist if there is a role for us to play.”

— Barry Moehring, Benton County judge

fire and to remediate the site could be between $21 million and $39 million, Gov. Asa Hutchinson has said.

U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Dardanelle, on Feb. 12 asked the federal Environmental Protection Agency for around $15 million to help snuff out the underground fire at the abandoned stump dump, a Cotton spokesman said.

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 Environmental Quality previously said.

State officials met with Hutchinson on Feb. 15 to discuss the status of the site and the next course of action, according to a news release from the ADEQ. The agency plans to seek a supplemental appropriation bill to give it authority to contract to address the site. This is a necessary step toward financing the work that needs to be done, the release stated.

Site preparation will continue throughout the next few weeks, the release stated. Work includes a staging area that must be created around the site by clearing trees and other vegetation, an access road and construction of a support system to facilitate fire control and fire response, the release stated.

The support system could include the construction of water-collection sites, berms, weirs and a sheet pile containment area. A water-supply line has already been installed, 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, 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 said. The operation was closed Dec. 31, 2016, according to Bella Vista’s website. The property is owned by Brown’s Tree Care.