A businessman who wanted to build a crematorium near an elementary school outside Russellville withdrew the application Thursday but plans to file a new proposal to put the facility several hundred feet farther from the school.
A Russellville resident who spoke during a meeting in Little Rock of the state Board of Embalmers and Funeral Directors said later that he still opposes Humphrey Funeral Service's plan to build the crematorium near Center Valley Elementary School.
The funeral home's president, Jim Bob Humphrey, said his business submitted an alternative proposal Wednesday to have the facility built 1,560 feet west of the school building and 1,000 feet west of the playground. His attorney, Robert Veach of Russellville, said that would be 550 feet farther away than earlier planned.
"We feel like that is going literally the second mile," Humphrey said.
Humphrey plans to obtain some additional adjacent land from his family trust and put the crematorium "as far away as we can" from the school, Veach said. "The [new] proposal may be as far as we can go. That's a question for the surveyors."
Veach said Thursday that the funeral home had planned to ask the board to approve either the earlier proposal or the alternative, but it was later agreed to start the process over with a new application, present it at the board's next meeting and also hold another public hearing to avoid any legal challenges. The board will meet again Jan. 8.
Hugh Laws, a Russellville resident and lawyer, said he attended the meeting as "a concerned citizen" but was only speaking for himself, not as an attorney for opponents, though he has given them some advice.
Laws, whose children are adults, said he has not seen the proposed alternative but said he's happy Humphrey withdrew the first petition.
Still, Laws doesn't favor a crematorium in the school's area despite the extra feet.
"I don't think that's sufficient," Laws said.
Besides, he said, it doesn't "make sense to have a crematory next to an elementary school" where children and possibly pregnant women could be exposed to harmful emissions, he said.
Laws also said Humphrey had refused to add a filtration system that Laws believes "would relieve the [pollution] dangers."
Veach, however, said the crematorium already comes with a filtration system. What Humphrey doesn't want to do is add an additional filtration system that would require a separate building because of the high cost, Veach said.
Russellville residents testified at a public hearing in July that they believe emissions from the crematorium -- such as mercury, particulate matter and dioxides -- would harm their children and cause their property values to plunge.
According to a permit issued by the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality, the crematorium would meet state emission standards for six pollutants, including mercury, particulate matter and dioxides. It could burn up to 175 pounds per hour and 764 tons per year.
Humphrey said he doesn't agree with all of the residents' concerns but said, "it's important ... to listen to people, especially parents who are concerned about their children."
To that end, he said, he proposed having the facility become the first crematorium in North America to extract dental amalgam -- which contains mercury that is used in fillings and crowns -- before bodies are cremated. That process would prevent any mercury from vaporizing at high temperatures and entering into the air.
Humphrey said he plans to return to the state Board of Dental Examiners, which previously tabled the question of whether such extractions constitute dentistry. He said he thought the meeting was next week, but the panel's website lists its next two sessions as today and Jan. 9.
"Common sense would tell anyone that it's not" practicing dentistry, Humphrey said. "We remove pacemakers from all bodies." he added.
"We also remove radioactive implants. ... We're not practicing cardiovascular surgery."
State Desk on 11/14/2014