Timeline of land farm issues in Griffithville

By The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

LITTLE ROCK — May 30, 2008: Public notice of the ArkansasPetro 1 permit application published.

Aug. 28, 2008: ADEQ held a community meeting in Griffithville about the ArkansasPetro 1 application.

Sept. 17, 2008: Deadline for Griffithville residents to submit their comments on the application. Only residents who submitted comments during this period would later have the right to appeal the permit, but the literature distributed at the meeting doesn't specifically say that, Griffithville Mayor Windle Porter said, and he said he doesn't remember if they were told that at the meeting.

Nov. 15, 2008: ADEQ stopped accepting land farm permit applications in preparation for a statewide study into the effectiveness of land farms. Three land farm applications were received before the deadline: ArkansasPetro 1, a land farm near Quitman owned by state District 59 Rep. Lance Reynolds and a land farm in Prairie County (ADEQ spokesman Aaron Sadler said its permit is still pending).

Nov. 25, 2008: ADEQ began its statewide study.

Dec. 12, 2008: ADEQ issued an emergency order for operations to halt at Central Arkansas Disposal. Neighboring farmers complained of fish kills and livestock deaths in the area and reported seeing the black/gray drill wastewater in waterways outside of the land farm.An Arkansas Game and Fish Commission employee told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette at the time that he estimated the fish kill to be in the thousands at the nearby Steve Wilson/Raft Creek Wildlife Management Area. ADEQ investigated and found a "large unlined, unpermitted waste treatment reservoir" being filled through an underground pipe from the licensed facility, according to the inspection paperwork.

Jan. 20, 2009: ADEQ concludes its site visits to each of the state's 11 land farms.

March 13, 2009: ADEQ formally revoked Central Arkansas Disposal's license and that of Fayetteville Shale Land Farm LLC near Carlisle and dispensed more than $150,000 in penalties on the businesses, which are owned by the same person.

April 2009: Several of Central Arkansas Disposal's neighboring farmers filed a civil suit against Central Arkansas Disposal, said Lamar Porter of the Brad Hendricks Law Firm in Little Rock, the lawyer representing the landowners.

April 2009: ADEQ releases a report with its conclusions from the statewide study. According to the report, the investigation found permit violations at each of the facilities and evidence that drill wastewater had escaped into the environment from all 11 land farms. The report concluded that damage to nearby ecosystems had occurred and that some of the land farm fields would no longer be usable for farming. ADEQ spokesman Aaron Sadler said the results have caused the department to take a second look at the permit requirements for land farms, but the department is still convinced that if permit requirements are followed, land farms are an effective method of disposal. When pressed to estimate a time, he said he guessed the new permit requirements would be released in a matter of weeks rather than months. Existing land farms would have to submit to the new requirements, and the department would begin accepting new permits under the new guidelines.

April 21, 2009: In an Arkansas Democrat-Gazette article, Chesapeake Energy Corp. spokesman Mark Raines said the company, the second-largest active in the Fayetteville Shale play, has already moved away from using land farms in favor of an underground injection model called "saltwater disposal wells." Others in the industry comment that land farms may be on the way out as the popular disposal method.

Three Rivers, Pages 57, 60 on 06/04/2009