The Legislature's Joint Budget Committee on Thursday endorsed a bill to give the state Department of Environmental Quality $20 million more in spending authority for contractual services to fight and clean up the slow-burning underground fire at a dumping ground for stumps in Benton County.
The legislation -- Senate Bill 406 by Sen. Jim Hendren, R-Sulphur Springs -- also would allow the department's director to ask the state's chief fiscal officer to lend up to $10 million from the state Budget Stabilization Trust Fund to the department's Hazardous Substance Remedial Action Trust Fund this fiscal year, which ends June 30.
The stabilization fund has existed for many years and is a reserve fund that can make loans to state departments as needed. The remedial fund is set up specifically for the environmental department for emergencies involving pollutants. The hope is that the state will be repaid either by the federal government or others.
The Joint Budget Committee also approved amending the Department of Environmental Quality's appropriation, contained in another bill -- House Bill 1213.
The amendment to HB1213 would include the $20 million in additional spending authority for fiscal 2020, which starts July 1. It also would add the reference to the $10 million loan. The amendment would increase to $26.1 million the department's spending authority for contractual services for hazardous waste cleanup.
"Loan repayments shall be made from time to time from any legal fund of the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality and the entire amount of the loan shall be repaid to the Budget Stabilization Trust Fund by June 30, 2023," according to HB1213 and SB406. HB1213 is still in committee, and SB406 has been sent to the Senate.
"We have got kind of a man-made natural disaster in Bella Vista," Hendren told the committee.
"The stump dump has been burning for several months and is making the area unsafe and really almost unlivable. You all helped us a few months ago to give $1 million to get the folks to come and help us develop a plan, and all Senate Bill 406 does is put in place a mechanism between now and the end of the fiscal year. Once that plan is developed, we can begin to fund that," he said.
"The governor already has been out there and declared this an emergency, so we can go around procurement laws because of the urgency of the situation," said Hendren.
"The hope here is that if we use some of the trust fund that is over at ADEQ that is designed to clean up situations like this that we can get that money repaid eventually from the EPA [federal Environmental Protection Agency] or from the responsible parties, so this does not make a final determination on who is going to end up paying the bill for this. Though it does allow us a mechanism to be put in place so that we can start paying somebody to clean it up and then sort out exactly who is going to pay it after the investigation is done," he said.
Bella Vista Mayor Peter Christie told lawmakers that the fire was detected about seven months ago.
"The impact on the residents has been catastrophic," he said, and the Department of Health has indicated that the immediate half-mile radius "is in trouble [and] anybody with any kind of respiratory problem should not be outside ... nor doing any kind of exercise.
"Smoke and smell has permeated into people's homes. The smell is absolutely putrid," Christie said.
There also has been a negative impact on economic development in Bella Vista with people no longer buying homes in the area, and housing values are dropping in the immediate area, he said.
"The No. 1 request from all the residents -- and, as you can imagine, they are quite vocal, even though the city didn't know about or operate the stump dump, it all falls back on us -- [is] put the fire out," Christie said. "It is a very complex situation according to ADEQ. ... ADEQ needs help. Our community needs help."
Rep. John Walker, D-Little Rock, said he is concerned because "there are other less-affluent areas of the state where we have similar problems.
"I am aware of several, especially in south Arkansas, the paper plants and paper mills and other areas where people live within proximity to pollution on a daily basis," he said. "Do you all have a loan fund that can be invaded for purposes of providing similar consideration to the residents of those contaminated areas?"
Mitch Rouse, chief of staff at the Department of Environmental Quality, said he knows "with Georgia-Pacific specifically, we are in constant communication with the citizens there." A Georgia-Pacific paper mill in Crossett is the subject of a consent decree over emissions of chemicals such as hydrogen sulfide.
"We hold community meetings pretty regularly, just like this situation is a dynamic one with a lot of different parts to it," he said. "I think the difference is that Bella Vista is what has been a man-made disaster of sorts, and it needs immediate addressing. I think Crossett is one that has been under constant watch by ADEQ."
Referring to Walker's question, Hendren said, "I really hope that this doesn't turn into some sort of regional thing, and I hope all of us would support similar efforts in anybody else's region.
"I lived in those areas next to paper plants, and I understand the challenges that come. But I would also tell you if you walk around [the landfill fire], it's like walking through Yellowstone with the smoke," he said.
Sen. Linda Chesterfield, D-Little Rock, said, "I do believe that we've got to do a better job environmentally across the state, so mine is not regionalism."
"I would also agree that one of the things that I at least have taken away from this is we need more oversight and investigation about how did we get to this point, how did a landfill like this operate for so many years and how do we stop [it] from happening in future years?" Hendren said.
So far, state response funds of up to $7.3 million have been obligated to address the fire. Contractor Ensafe has billed the Environmental Quality Department for $241,000 so far, said department spokesman Donnally Davis.
A Section on 03/01/2019