FAYETTEVILLE -- Residents of the Wedington Woods area who hope to block expansion of a red dirt mine near their homes west of Fayetteville are awaiting a state government decision on the project.
The Arkansas Department of Energy and Environment is considering a permit modification to allow Eco-Friendly Materials to expand a mining operation. The company is mining an area of about 80 acres, according to information from the department, and is seeking to add another 80 acres.
The state closed its 30-day comment period on the permit for the expansion in June and hasn't announced a decision, according to Donnally Davis, chief of communications.
"The department is currently reviewing the comments that were submitted during the public comment period," Davis wrote in an email. "After the review is complete, the department will issue a final permitting decision."
Teri David-Beupre, a resident of the Wedington Woods area, said none of the neighbors has heard anything from the state on the status of the permit.
"We're just waiting for them to tell us what their plans are," she said. "The ball is in the court of the department."
Residents of the Wedington Woods area, which is adjacent to the area considered for the expansion, brought their concerns to the Washington County Quorum Court at its June 16 meeting. The neighbors complained they weren't given adequate notice of the proposed expansion and the mining operation should be required to go through the county's conditional use permit process and to comply with state and federal laws and regulations, they said.
Lisa Davison told justices of the peace at the June meeting she has lived in her home in Wedington Woods for 38 years. She said the proposed expansion would bring the dirt mining operation within a few yards of her home. Davison said she suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder, which is aggravated by the constant noise of the trucks and heavy equipment, along with the blasting done at the quarry site. She said the dirt mine has driven animals from the neighborhood and leaves her home filled with red dust she is unable to clean up or filter out.
Jake Newcomb, an attorney representing one of the neighbors, argued the expansion of the mining operations precludes any argument the use was "grandfathered in" by existing before a county ordinance zoning unincorporated areas took effect.
Newcomb also mentioned an inspection report from the Arkansas Division of Environmental Quality that listed several deficiencies in the mining operation. A copy of the report listed unpermitted outfalls of water on the site and allowing stormwater to bypass a sedimentation pond on the property. The report also indicated there were three additional disturbed areas on the property that were not part of the permit.
The berms on the sedimentation pond are overgrown with trees and other vegetation that lowered the capacity of the pond by several feet and allows stormwater to bypass the permitted outfall, the report says. The report also noted several instances where water sampling or inspections weren't documented or didn't occur.
The state inspection report on the Eco-Friendly Materials operation lists James Earl Lindsey as manager for the operation. Lindsey owns several parcels of property in the area and had agreed to a contract with Washington County in 2012, which was renewed in 2016, to mine red dirt for the county's use. The county obtained the original permit for the operation and in 2020, the county transferred the state permit for the operation to Eco-Friendly Materials.
Eco-Friendly materials filed a response to the inspection report and the list of deficiencies in June, with photos showing corrective measures it has taken on site and explaining that information listed as missing was simply not filled in or was not in the correct place in the company's records.
The county mining operation dates to at least 2005, according to information on state permits and contracts between the county and Lindsey for the mining operation's four parcels.
Brian Lester, county attorney, said in a July 27 letter the mining pit "was in existence prior to the Washington County Quorum Court's passage of Ordinance 2006-66, which created zoning throughout the unincorporated areas of the county." Lester said the county has taken the position uses that existed before the adoption of the planning ordinance are "grandfathered in" and not required to seek conditional use permits as new, nonconforming uses are.
Lester said the contracts between the county and Lindsey allow the mining on all four parcels "so long as it was not done in violation of any state laws or regulations." Lester said no county permits are required by the mining operation "unless an ordinance is passed requiring such action."
Newcomb said the county's arguments about the additional parcels being grandfathered in doesn't follow the law as he understands it. Newcomb said by the logic being used by the county, any operation in existence before the zoning ordinance could expand indefinitely and into areas not part of the original operation, without following the county's zoning regulations.
Newcomb said the county's zoning ordinance governs the expansion of existing operations, he wrote in a letter to the state. Both the property on which the original mining permit was issued, as well as the proposed modification to include additional acreage, are currently zoned agricultural-residential, Newcomb said in his letter.
He asks in his letter the application for the state permit be denied until the operation complies with the county zoning ordinance.
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[]State water quality inspection report
A Jan. 13, 2022, state inspection of the Eco-Friendly materials, LLC, mining operation near the Wedington Woods area west of Fayetteville detailed 10 violations of the permit requirements. The inspection report and the company’s June 17 response can be found on the Arkansas Energy & Environment website — arkansas.gov/agency/department-of-energy-and-environment/ — under the DEQ Facility and Permit Summary Data System by entering the permit number: ARR001599.
Source: Arkansas Energy and Environment