Owner of Legacy mining says publicity ran him out

A day after NPR-KUAF News Producer Jacqueline Froelich aired her report about concerns with syndicated conservation easements being sold to investors as tax shelters possibly taking place in the Ozarks, Matt Mills, the owner of Legacy Mining Company, wrote her and this reporter an email stating, “Just so you know I had already sold my interest in the land to another mining company about a month ago. You’ve successfully run me out of the Kings River area and I will not be back unless it is to enjoy the beautiful scenery and waterways.”

Extensive drilling exploration activities of Legacy Mining Company on about 600 acres of land off Rockhouse Road in the Kings River watershed had drawn widespread community concerns about how mining for limestone would impact their wells, springs, caves, water quality in the Kings and property values. In the July 17, 2019, Eureka Springs Independent Pat Costner was quoted as saying, “You can’t quarry stone without destroying the ecosystem of the area.”

Mills declined to attend or send a representative to a public meeting July 12 where about 75 people voiced concerns about the negative impacts from quarrying in the karst terrain. And a meeting with his mining consultant, Scott Moore, that had been scheduled August 9 with Sen. Bob Ballinger and concerned citizens, was cancelled by Moore after Froelich inquired about press access.

On June 12, the Independent published an article detailing how Legacy Mining Company had placed 200 acres of property surrounding the Elk Ranch Ozark Southern Stone, also owned by Legacy Mining, into a conservation easement. Some residents had been told that Legacy wasn’t planning to mine the property near the Kings River, but rather planned to place the parcels into conservation easements as it had done with the properties adjacent to Ozark Southern Stone.

Froelich reported that the Land Trust Alliance, headquartered in Washington, D.C, as well as regional nonprofit land trusts in Arkansas, are issuing a warning about promoters who package and sell syndicated conservation easements to investors for tax benefits. Her report referred to these as abusive tax shelters, as a promoter can purchase land and then have an appraisal done to estimate the value of the resources if never developed. The resulting appraisal can be many times higher than what was paid for the land, and investors can receive hefty tax breaks.

Froelich quoted experts who said that sham conservation easements threaten the tax advantages for landowners who are legitimately protecting their land for future generations. There is currently a bi-partisan bill in Congress that would take away incentives for abusive transactions estimated to cost the U.S Treasury billions of dollars annually.

After receiving the email where Mills said the reporters had run him out of the Kings River area, this reporter responded, “We have been reporting on the issues that have concerned residents about your operation including the lack of stormwater controls that polluted local waterways, constant noise from drilling activities, and the potential for a mining operation to destroy their water supplies and property values, and inadequate local roads and bridges. I don’t think you have much compassion for those many people who invested their life savings in property in this area who have been worried to death. And we certainly aren’t responsible for the national bi-partisan effort to reform conservation easement loopholes costing the taxpayers billions each year.

“It is also curious that you sold the interest a month ago, and yet Scott had a meeting scheduled with Bob Ballinger and others only this past week that was cancelled.”

Mills’s email response to this reporter and Froelich was, “My apologies. I put it under contract a month ago. I should’ve clarified. I have great concern for local residents and I believe the people I am selling to will be much better geared financially to assist. Once the transaction finalizes, I’m happy to discuss further, but the buyer will be able to do a lot more than I ever could have for the surrounding area. I’m not too proud to realize that and I was hoping you’d be happy with it.”

In another email, Mills said he had provided the buyer with the contact information of the reporters.

“I have no clue whether they will call you or not,” he wrote in the email. “I will try and assist where I can with the transition.”

In another email to Froelich, Mills wrote, “I listened to what Becky was relating to me regarding the community and their concerns. I passed those concerns on to the group that has my interest under contract. They didn’t have any issues with the concerns and thought they could appease the locals. Like I said, I passed Becky’s info to the buyer. If they want to talk to her then I’m sure they will. They may wait until the sale is closed. I don’t feel it’s necessary to let everyone know when I’m negotiating a contract to sell my property so I didn’t mention it, plus I’ve had many contract negotiations stall or disappear, so there was no reason to talk about it until it was signed. The sale could still possibly not occur.”

Mills also stated in the email that he likes to work with Atlantic Coast Conservancy (ACC) when he chooses to conserve land. “They have the environment in mind and according to their filings they have the financial wherewithal to maintain their obligations,” Mills wrote. “Who knows, but if someone reached out to Dr. Keller [Dr. Robert Keller, CEO of ACC], he might transfer his rights to someone local. Has any local agency tried this? That would’ve seemed like the logical step.”

In an article July 24, the Independent reported that Mills said he was not currently planning to reapply to the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality for Notifications of Intent to Quarry on the Kings River property.

“We are pausing the permitting process to complete additional environmental studies, specifically, impact to groundwater when using non-explosive techniques to mine,” Mills wrote in an email.