Group notes yield from trash cleanups
Keep Arkansas Beautiful volunteers removed nearly 7 million pounds of trash from parks, roadsides and waterways in 2018, the group announced in a news release Friday.
The organization and local chapters held spring and fall cleanups in 71 of the state's 75 counties. A total of 330 local cleanups brought in more than 13,000 volunteers, according to a news release.
The volunteers traversed 1,696 miles of roadside and 1,077 miles of waterways and shorelines.
Keep Arkansas Beautiful volunteers also planted nearly 2,100 trees, shrubs and flowers and collected more than 400,000 pounds of electronics for recycling, the release said.
Shutdown delays paper-mill hearing
A public hearing scheduled for Tuesday night regarding a state and federal environmental settlement with Georgia-Pacific has been indefinitely postponed because of the federal government shutdown, the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality confirmed Friday.
The department said the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency had scheduled this week's public hearing on the agencies' multimillion-dollar consent decree with Georgia-Pacific in Crossett.
The consent decree orders that the company's Crossett paper mill be fined $600,000 for a 2015 inspection that found leaks and flaws in the company's management of hazardous air pollutants, such as formaldehyde.
The consent decree orders several additional measures, estimated to cost millions of dollars, based on complaints from residents regarding excessive hydrogen sulfide in the air, which often causes them breathing troubles. Neither the decree nor the inspection state any specific findings or violations related to hydrogen sulfide.
Last year, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported that the plant emitted more hydrogen sulfide than the company's permit allowed. Levels were high enough to create an odor with the potential to cause breathing problems.
New vote scheduled on landfill proposal
The Regional Recycling and Waste Reduction District board in Pulaski County will meet at 9 a.m. Wednesday to hold a public vote on a certificate of need for a proposed landfill expansion.
The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported last week that the district's board held a vote through a private email chain, three weeks after hearing opposition to the measure at a public meeting. After the newspaper's report, district leaders said they would hold another vote.
Votes by email are not allowed under Arkansas law; votes by public bodies must occur at meetings for which the public is notified and given an opportunity to attend.
The district's board is made up of the county judge and mayors of the county's six cities with populations exceeding 2,000 residents: Little Rock, North Little Rock, Sherwood, Jacksonville, Maumelle and Wrightsville.
Central Arkansas Recycling and Disposal Services, located off Ironton Road in Little Rock, intends to expand its landfill on 30 acres of property purchased from Pulaski County.
The certificate of need is required for the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality to consider applications to expand or build landfills or new transfer stations.
State Desk on 01/13/2019