Does Tontitown host a looming disaster?

It defies logic to have a landfill situated in the heart of a city, let alone allow its expansion. Two rounds of National Guard testing at Eco-Vista landfill point, in my mind, to what the EPA openly admits: landfills release gases that pose a threat to human health. (EPA also states landfills should not be near populated areas.)

Under a responsible government, we wouldn’t have to deal with such absurdity.

The EPA and state departments of environmental quality are notorious for disregarding moral obligations. Numerous examples illustrate this. In Love Canal, New York, the EPA ignored complaints about stench and sickness for nearly 20 years and only intervened in response to public embarrassment over the toxic groundwater crisis. Even then, it inexcusably downplayed the severity of the situation. Dr. Beverly Paigan, a cancer researcher who exposed the coverup, wrote: “It is evident from this and many subsequent environmental controversies that politics, public pressure, and economic interests always take priority over scientific evidence.”

The Washington Post described the Flint, Michigan, drinking water crisis (stench, E. coli, etc.) as a result of “government failures at every level.” Both the EPA administrator and governor were accused of “ignoring, denying, and covering up the facts.” Again, it took outside researchers to expose the truth. Dr. Marc Edwards, principal investigator, said: “The levels we have observed in Flint are the worst I have seen in over 25 years of working in this field.”

It is concerning that just like in those cases, environmental regulators are ignoring calls for help in Tontitown.

This issue extends beyond Tontitown. Eco-Vista rests atop a porous and fragile karst formation that spans Northwest Arkansas. Unlike traditional aquifers, karst aquifers are elusive, making conventional identification methods ineffective. Instead, a crude hit-and-miss dye testing method is used. This involves pouring traceable dye into one location and searching for it in another. WM, the owner of the landfill, performed this test at Eco-Vista in the proposed expansion area and discovered it unexpectedly ended up in Wildcat Creek, a tributary of the Illinois River.

The state Department of Environmental Quality’s solution to this unnerving outcome is to place a synthetic liner beneath the waste. However, liners are known to break. To detect leaks, a handful of (onsite only) monitoring wells are proposed. This is far from reassuring. Who knows how much damage may have already occurred by the time a leak is discovered, if at all?

DEQ’s record of denying Eco-Vista’s air pollution for over 30 years is deeply concerning. Just imagine the potential consequences of a 30-year undetected or unreported leachate spill. NWA’s aquifers, rivers, streams, wells and delicate karst ecosystem itself could all be at risk.

There are alternatives. CARDS Holdings has already taken over all of Springdale’s waste and proposed a competitive rate for the Boston Mountain Solid Waste District.

The time has come for Eco-Vista to cease its operations, and for the state to prevent Tontitown from becoming another disaster like Flint, Love Canal, or Hinkley, Calif. (as depicted in “Erin Brockovich”).

DENNIS BOYER Tontitown