Roberts to replace Miller at federation
A vice president for the Arkansas Bankers Association will lead the Arkansas Environmental Federation, according to a news release from the federation this week.
Ava Franks Roberts will replace Charles Miller, who has been the director for the past five years and announced his plan to resign in June.
The Arkansas Environmental Federation is a nonprofit that works with industries and utilities -- generally, entities subject to environmental regulations -- to educate them on how to comply with environmental regulations while also prospering economically. The federation hosts training and an annual conference and submits public comments on environment-related proposals on behalf of regulated entities.
Roberts graduated from Southern Methodist University in Dallas with a bachelor's degree in English, medieval literature, cinema television, and from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock William H. Bowen School of Law, according to the announcement and her LinkedIn page.
Roberts also served as deputy director of finance for then-Gov. Mike Beebe's re-election campaign. She was associate counsel at the Arkansas Insurance Department and has most recently been a vice president and director of government relations for the Arkansas Bankers Association.
Hog-farm permit on panel's agenda
The Pollution Control and Ecology Commission will hear a recommendation Friday to send C&H Hog Farms' denied permit application back out for public comment.
The commission also will hear a proposal to adopt regulation changes to its storage tank regulations that adopt revisions to state law passed by the Legislature in 2017.
Administrative Law Judge Charles Moulton recommended last month that C&H's permit be reopened for public comment because the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality, which denied the permit after the last round of public comments, did not indicate an intent to deny the permit.
In early 2017, about a year after C&H applied for its permit, the department recommended approval of the permit and public comments were then accepted based on the permit and the department's recommendation. About a year later, the department denied the permit based on concerns raised in comments about C&H's lack of an emergency response plan or groundwater flow study.
C&H argued the department should have issued a second draft decision for public comment -- one recommending denial of the permit. Moulton agreed.
If Moulton's recommendation is approved by the commission, the hog farm's permit application would be sent back to the department for approval or a draft decision denying it that would reopen it for public input.
C&H, located on Big Creek, about 6 miles upstream from where it meets the Buffalo National River, is operating under an expired permit issued under a different, and now-canceled, regulatory program.
The department also will seek commission approval on its proposed regulation change regarding storage tanks that would make registration of above-ground tanks optional and remove distance limitations from secondary containment and monitoring requirements for new underground tanks or other equipment, among other things.
The Pollution Control and Ecology Commission meeting will be at 9 a.m. at Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality headquarters, 5301 Northshore Drive, in North Little Rock.
ASU uses Entergy funding to upgrade
Entergy Arkansas has given Arkansas State University-Beebe's campuses more than $100,000 to improve energy efficiency and ultimately save the school money on utility bills, according to a news release from the utility.
Arkansas State University-Beebe has campuses in Beebe, Heber Springs, Searcy and Little Rock Air Force Base that collectively serve more than 3,700 students.
The school used the $106,575.72 incentive check to buy energy efficient LED lights throughout the Beebe, Searcy and Heber Springs campuses, according to the release. The school is working on improvements to its HVAC equipment that would earn more incentives.
The rebate offset a portion of the $5.2 million the school is spending on its modernization project, which is mostly related to electricity savings, according to a Facebook post by the school. Upgrades to lighting and HVAC have saved the college 888,131 kilowatt hours of electricity in six months.
The school projects it will fully offset the cost of the $5.2 million investment and save an additional $2 million over a 20-year period, said Roger Moore, vice chancellor of finance and administration and chief fiscal officer.
Metro on 08/20/2018