Carrol County solid-waste plan gains judge’s favor

An administrative law judge has recommended that Carroll County Solid Waste Authority run its own regional solid-waste district.

Carroll County is one of six north Arkansas counties in which an annual $18 fee service for landowners has been levied to pay back the Arkansas Department of Energy and Environment for taking over, as a courtappointed receiver, financially troubled Ozark Mountain Solid Waste Management District projects. Leaders in those counties have opposed the fee.

The department spent $12.9 million bailing out the district on a landfill and another $1 million cleaning up a tire dump of about 1 million tires. Pulaski County Circuit Judge Tim Fox ordered the $18 fee.

The state has 18 regional solid-waste districts, funded largely by the state. In recent years, as struggles at Ozark Mountain and other solid-waste districts have prompted the department to disburse funds and take legal action, the department has ended some fees and grant programs for the districts.

The Carroll County Solid Waste Authority petitioned to become its own solid-waste district in February. The authority has denied that it’s doing so to avoid the fee, and leaders testified that they did not believe the county could avoid the fee if the petition were approved.

Opponents of the petition, including the department, asserted that the county could avoid the fee.

In his recommended decision, Arkansas Pollution Control and Ecology Commission Administrative Law Judge Charles Moulton said the authority met the legal requirements to become an independent district. It has “the necessary programs, assets, and personnel in place to run a model solid waste management district.”

In regard to the fee, Moulton said the fee would still be applied because it was levied by the court and the department, not the Ozark Mountain Solid Waste Management District.

The Arkansas Pollution Control and Ecology Commission meets Oct. 25 and could vote on Moulton’s decision at that time. An agenda has not been set.