Landfill expansion advances
State grants motion, despite opposition in Tontitown
TONTITOWN — The state will allow the Eco-Vista Landfill to start using a 10-acre expansion still under appeal because the existing landfill is running out of room, the state Pollution Control and Ecology Commission confirmed Thursday.
The landfill operator filed a motion to allow use of the area. Commission rules allow the chairman to grant such a motion in cases where a landfill operator and its customers would suffer “substantial prejudice” if the relief is not granted. Such permission is subject to review at the next regular meeting of the full commission. Chairman David B. Vandergriff recused, but Vice Chairman Doug Melton granted the request.
Tontitown residents and the city’s government oppose the expansion and appealed to the commission to stop it. The appeal is pending before an administrative law judge for the commission. The commission agreed to let Eco-Vista start work on the expansion after the appeal was filed but held off granting permission to use the expanded space until the appeal was resolved.
Eco-Vista’s request Wednesday came after air quality tests demanded by expansion opponents and state legislators found the pollutant benzene and the foul-smelling chemical acrolein in the air near the landfill. Yet one test site found the same chemicals upwind of the landfill. The environmental engineering firm conducting the tests recommends more testing. The state Division of Environmental Quality, Department of Health and legislators are looking at ways to fund extensive testing.
“The host city has denied the expansion of the landfill, and to continue to run over the citizens is wrong,” said state Rep. Robin Lundstrum, R-Elm Springs. Her legislative district includes the landfill and the Tontitown residents nearby.
“This will continue until we handle the issues surrounding the landfill,” Lundstrum said. “We must start now searching for a new location for the landfill.”
Northwest Arkansas’ growth outpaced the region’s landfill capacity, Lundstrum said. “We’re not planning for our success,” she said. Eco-Vista is the only landfill in Northwest Arkansas and is owned by WM Inc., formerly known as Waste Management.
Tontitown Mayor Angie Russell issued a statement before Melton’s decision opposing use of the expansion: “Tontitown strongly opposes this move by Waste Management to short circuit the legal appeal process that is currently underway. Considering that it is the Pollution Control and Ecology Commission’s own prior ruling that is under appeal, it would be impossible for them to be unbiased and just in this matter. With recent tests revealing the presence of toxins surrounding the landfill, all plans for expansion must be halted until the issue of air quality is fully resolved. Citizens’ health and well-being must always be our top priority.”
Eco-Vista stretched use of existing landfill space as far as it could, Wednesday’s filing says.
“Unless the Commission acts and grants this motion, the residents and commercial customers in Northwest Arkansas in Washington, Benton, and Carroll County will need to find another Class 1 landfill to send their waste before the Commission meets again at the end of April 2024.”
Class 1 landfill permits allow acceptance of most nonhazardous household and commercial waste.
“Their lack of planning should not cause a continued environmental hazard to the people of Tontitown,” state Rep. Steve Unger, R-Springdale, one of the lawmakers in discussions with state agencies to get more testing done, said Thursday before Melton’s decision.
The next regular commission meeting where the full body can consider letting Eco-Vista use the expanded space is April 26. Commission rules empower the chairman to call a special meeting of the commission to consider Eco-Vista’s request, Wednesday’s pleading says, if the chairman does not want to act alone.
“This region of Arkansas has generally experienced higher than average growth rates for several decades, resulting in population sprawl towards the landfill, while simultaneously imposing pressure on the landfill to accept more solid waste resulting from rapid development in the region,” Eco-Vista’s request says.