Bill advances to add $20 million for Bella Vista fire

The Legislature’s Joint Budget Committee on Thursday endorsed a bill giving the state Department of Environmental Quality $20 million more for contractual services to fight and clean up the slow-burning underground fire in Bella Vista.

The legislation — Senate Bill 406 by Sen. Jim Hendren, R-Sulphur Springs — also allows the department’s director to ask the state’s chief fiscal officer to lend up to $10 million from the state Budget Stabilization Trust Fund to the department’s Hazardous Substance Remedial Action Trust Fund this fiscal year, which ends June 30.

The stabilization fund has existed for many years and is a reserve fund that can make loans to departments as needed.

The remedial fund is set up specifically for the environmental department for emergencies involving pollutants. The hope is the state will be repaid either by the federal government or others.

The Joint Budget Committee also approved amending the Department of Environmental Quality’s appropriation, contained in another bill — House Bill 1213.

The amendment to HB1213 would include the $20 million in spending authority for fiscal 2020, which starts July 1. It also would add the reference to the $10 million loan.

The amendment would increase to $26.1 million the department’s spending authority for contractual services for hazardous waste cleanup.

“Loan repayments shall be made from time to time from any legal fund of the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality and the entire amount of the loan shall be repaid to the Budget Stabilization Trust Fund by June 30, 2023,” according to HB1213 and SB406. HB1213 is still in committee, and SB406 has been sent to the Senate.

“We have got kind of a man-made natural disaster in Bella Vista,” Hendren told the committee.

“The stump dump has been burning for several months and is making the area unsafe and really almost unlivable. You all helped us a few months ago to give $1 million to get the folks to come and help us develop a plan, and all Senate Bill 406 does is put in place a mechanism between now and the end of the fiscal year. Once that plan is developed, we can begin to fund that,” he said.

Firefighters were dispatched in July 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.

The state received results this week from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s testing for chemicals of concern. None of the air samples showed elevated concentrations of the chemicals, according to an Environmental Quality news release. The compounds tested are potentially associated with landfill fires that contain construction debris, household waste or tires, according to a news release.

The testing was done at five locations near the Trafalgar Road site Feb. 10-12. The EPA also collected air samples of the compounds on site.

Particulate matter testing also done by the EPA at four sites showed the air quality was “good.”

An unhealthy reading in December prompted the state to caution everyone within a half-mile radius to avoid prolonged or heavy exertion outdoors.

The 61st Civil Support Team from the Arkansas National Guard concluded three days of air and water quality testing Thursday, said Dan Noble with the Department of Emergency Management. Testing was done from sun up to sun down, Noble said.

The testing will provide a baseline of the air quality in the area. The support team will be back in the area to monitor the air when the extinguishing begins and during remediation of the site, Noble said.

Monitoring stations were placed in the same locations where the EPA monitoring was done. “It’s all brand-new equipment,” Noble said of the devices used by the Arkansas National Guard. “It’s the most current, most advanced technology available.”

ADEQ continues to monitor the air at Fire Station No. 2 on Trafalgar Road and near Cooper Elementary School.

Members of Arkansas’ congressional delegation continue to press the the EPA about money to help smother the underground fire.

U.S. Sens. Tom Cotton and John Boozman along with 3rd District Rep. Steve Womack sent a letter to EPA Acting Administrator Andrew Wheeler on Tuesday to ask about what threshold would need to met before the agency would commit money.

“As we continue to learn more about the situation, it is becoming increasingly apparent that the state of Arkansas will require federal assistance to address the issue. We understand the law provides for a particular threshold of scientific data to trigger the EPA’s assistance on these types of environmental projects. It is the delegation’s intention to learn specifically what can be done at the federal level when the threshold is met so we can readily partner with the EPA to ensure funds and resources are swiftly dispatched to the state,” the letter reads.

The letter asks the EPA to provide a precise threshold of scientific data triggering an emergency response, to provide any options from which the state may receive financial assistance, and to provide an air monitoring system that receives continuous information over an extended period of time for reliable and up-todate data.

“The governor already has been out there and declared this an emergency, so we can go around procurement laws because of the urgency of the situation,” said Hendren.

“The hope here is that if we use some of the trust fund that is over at ADEQ that is designed to clean up situations like this that we can get that money repaid eventually from the EPA [federal Environmental Protection Agency] or from the responsible parties, so this does not make a final determination on who is going to end up paying the bill for this. Though it does allow us a mechanism to be put in place so that we can start paying somebody to clean it up and then sort out exactly who is going to pay it after the investigation is done,” he said.

“The impact on the residents has been catastrophic,” Bella Vista Mayor Peter Christie told lawmakers, and the Department of Health has indicated the immediate half-mile radius “is in trouble [and] anybody with any kind of respiratory problem should not be outside … nor doing any kind of exercise.

“Smoke and smell has permeated into people’s homes. The smell is absolutely putrid,” Christie said.

There also has been a negative impact on economic development with people no longer buying homes in the area, and housing values are dropping in the immediate area, he said.

“The No. 1 request from all the residents — and, as you can imagine, they are quite vocal, even though the city didn’t know about or operate the stump dump, it all falls back on us — [is] put the fire out,” Christie said. “It is a very complex situation according to ADEQ. … ADEQ needs help. Our community needs help.”

Rep. John Walker, D-Little Rock, said he’s concerned because “there are other less-affluent areas of the state where we have similar problems.

“I am aware of several, especially in south Arkansas, the paper plants and paper mills and other areas where people live within proximity to pollution on a daily basis,” he said. “Do you all have a loan fund that can be invaded for purposes of providing similar consideration to the residents of those contaminated areas?”

Mitch Rouse, chief of staff at the Department of Environmental Quality, said he knows “with Georgia-Pacific specifically, we are in constant communication with the citizens there.” A Georgia-Pacific paper mill in Crossett is the subject of a consent decree over emissions of chemicals such as hydrogen sulfide.

“We hold community meetings pretty regularly, just like this situation is a dynamic one with a lot of different parts to it,” he said. “I think the difference is that Bella Vista is what has been a man-made disaster of sorts, and it needs immediate addressing. I think Crossett is one that has been under constant watch by ADEQ.”

Referring to Walker’s question, Hendren said, “I really hope that this doesn’t turn into some sort of regional thing, and I hope all of us would support similar efforts in anybody else’s region.

“I lived in those areas next to paper plants, and I understand the challenges that come. But I would also tell you if you walk around [the landfill fire], it’s like walking through Yellowstone with the smoke,” he said.

Sen. Linda Chesterfield, D-Little Rock, said, “I do believe that we’ve got to do a better job environmentally across the state, so mine is not regionalism.”

“I would also agree that one of the things that I at least have taken away from this is we need more oversight and investigation about how did we get to this point, how did a landfill like this operate for so many years and how do we stop [it] from happening in future years?” Hendren said.

So far, state response funds of up to $7.3 million have been obligated to address the fire. Contractor Ensafe has billed the ADEQ for $241,000 so far, said department spokesman Donnally Davis.