Wording in landfill item questioned

The only matter that sparked some conversation in the House’s otherwise routine passage of dozens of budget bills Wednesday was an appropriation for the Department of Energy and the Environment’s Division of Environmental Quality.

The hang-up occurred after House Minority Leader Fred Love, D-Little Rock, questioned language that had been added to the appropriation regarding a landfill in Baxter County. The landfill at issue is the North Arkansas Board of Regional Sanitation, which stopped accepting trash in 2012 after its solid waste district ran out of money to operate the site.

The Division of Environmental Quality has spent about $17 million from the Landfill Post-Closure Trust Fund to manage the site, according to Donally Davis, an agency spokesman.

Love suggested that the language added to the appropriation last week would prevent the state from recouping the money it has spent from the residents of the Ozark Mountain Regional Solid Waste District.

“The agreement then was that the citizens would repay by collecting a fee,” Love said. “If the agreement was that the state was going to be repaid by those citizens, then I think that’s the agreement we need to stick with.”

After Love spoke up, the appropriation was pulled from a batch of other bills for a separate vote. The bill passed 78-19. House Majority Leader Marcus Richmond, R-Gravelly, was among those voting no. Davis said the agency was evaluating “what the specific language does in conjunction with the multiple ongoing lawsuits regarding this issue to determine the actual effect.”

The amendment was added to the appropriation by Sen. Bob Ballinger, R-Hindsville, who said the intent is to give the state agency “cover” to forgive the money owed by the district’s residents, many of whom are Ballinger’s constituents.

“It makes it clear that the will of the Legislature is that they not collect that money,” Ballinger said.

Ballinger said he disagreed with the decision to levy a fee on the residents to repay the money, saying that decision