BELLA VISTA -- Bella Vista officials said Friday that they buy into a plan to stamp out an underground landfill fire on Trafalgar Road by digging up the waste.
The plan takes several factors into consideration, Mayor Peter Christie said. It addresses residents' needs, contains the fire and will keep costs down, he said.
Excavation of the site also is needed, he said.
"We have to get down here to see what is in there," he said. "I like the plan."
The proposal is the second part of fighting the fire, Christie said. The first part is ongoing site preparation.
"Part two is large-scale work," he said. "There is no time frame, but we are getting closer."
The Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality said Thursday that the site must be excavated to ensure the underground fire is extinguished and will not reignite.
"An estimated 175,000-225,000 cubic yards of waste will be excavated," according to the department's news release.
For comparison purposes, if a football field including the end zones was dug out 1 yard deep, it would amount to 6,400 cubic yards. The landfill to be excavated is estimated to be between 27 and 35 times that amount, figures show.
City Council Member John Flynn said he had reviewed the plan and likes where it is heading.
"It makes a lot of sense," he said. "It's the right way to do it and keep costs down. I am sure the folks out there are frustrated because it is taking so long."
Christie and Flynn agreed it was a good idea to have residents involved in the process. The Department of Environmental Quality will accept comments through April 5.
"This is a bigger problem than most people thought," Flynn said. "It's a daunting problem."
Firefighters discovered the underground fire at a stump dump on Trafalgar Road on July 29. It's still burning.
A contractor for the work hasn't been selected yet, according to the plan as posted.
Most of the waste in the landfill is expected to be wood, according to the department's statement. It will be disposed of on-site using specialized "burn boxes," the plan said.
A curtain of air at each box will keep as much of the smoke as possible from rising and escaping, according to the department's news release. The smoke from the burn boxes is recirculated within the boxes and through the fire until almost all of the particles in the smoke are consumed, the release said.
Hauling the wood waste to an approved landfill, as an alternative, would cost between $11.3 million and $15 million, the department estimated.
The plan set a goal of containing the fire within 30 days of the start of the excavation. No projected start date or overall cost estimate is given. The proposal includes a 24/7 operation with completion in about 180 days, the plan said.
Air-quality monitoring will continue throughout the process, according to the plan.
Soil, ash and any other natural residual material will stay at the site, the department statement said, while metal, tires, construction material and any hazardous substances will be hauled away and disposed of off-site.
Chris Nelson, who lives near the fire site, said he had read the proposal. He was not confident or impressed by it. The fire should be extinguished first, then the site excavated, he said.
"I don't think it's realistic," he said. "There's some holes in what they say. If they are burning more, where is the concern for the people who have been breathing this for the past eight months?"
Residents near the fire were urged in December to avoid prolonged or heavy exertion outdoors after monitoring showed unhealthy air quality. The state continues to caution people living within a half-mile of the blaze, although recent testing has shown air-quality results in the "good" range.
At least two lawsuits are pending against previous owners and operators of the former stump dump, according to Benton County Circuit Court records. The first was filed in November on behalf of Bella Vista residents Curtis and Tiffany Macomber and their sons, Ezra and Trevor. Bella Vista resident Jim Parsons also is suing.
Defendants named by at least one of the lawsuits include: Cooper Communities; the Bella Vista Property Owners Association; Thomas Fredericks; Fredericks Construction; Blue Mountain Storage; and Samuel Care Enterprise, doing business as Brown's Tree Care. The Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality is also named as a defendant in Parsons' suit.
A copy of the department's plan to extinguish the stump-dump fire can be found at www.adeq.state.ar.us/bella-vista/. Comments will be accepted until through April 5. Comments can be submitted to info.adeq.commentinput.com/?id=a1r2k3.
The Environmental Quality Department received $20 million, drawn from different state government reserve funds, to get work started on putting out the fire. The cost to put out the fire and clean the site could be between $21 million and $39 million, according to state estimates.
The state expects to recoup money spent putting out the fire from past owners and operators of the landfill, according to a spokesman for the governor's office.
State Desk on 03/23/2019