State Sen. Bryan King convened a meeting of the Joint Committee on Energy at the Berryville Community Center last week to continue addressing issues surrounding the $18 annual fee imposed on property owners to pay for a closed landfill.
King, co-chair of the committee, recapped some of the history of the landfill in Baxter County that a six-county waste district purchased in 2005. The landfill had some existing problems, and the $12 million purchase price included a million dollars for remediation.
During the next few years, however, the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ) rejected four separate plans to correct problems. The estimated cost to bring the landfill into compliance rose to $6,000,000, and district members began taking trash elsewhere, further eroding revenues.
The landfill closed in 2012, and the waste district unsuccessfully tried to declare bankruptcy. The state legislature then passed a bill that would allow the ADEQ to recover the cost of closing the site from the district members. The $16 million cost to close the site far exceeds the $11 million, which the bondholders will collect.
King said special language in that 2014 bill also gave the bondholders additional protection. “An insider job set this whole thing up,” he said. King voted against that bill. Rep. Bob Ballinger, who also attended this meeting as a member of the committee, voted for the bill.
A circuit judge in Pulaski County ruled last year that every residential or business property in the six-county area would pay $18 annually for a period estimated at 25 to 30 years.
After providing that background, King formally called the meeting to order. He introduced Michael Grappe, Director of Special Projects at ADEQ. Grappe began by addressing a series of questions from Justice of the Peace Noreen Watson, who asked why the ADEQ had not collected fines from the previous owner of the landfill despite repeated problems. Grappe could only suggest that the ADEQ might have been facing a “blood from a turnip” situation.
Watson also asked about the four proposals for correction rejected by the ADEQ. Grappe said he had not finished looking at those engineering studies to see why they were rejected.
In response to a question, Grappe mentioned Berryville Mayor Tim McKinney, who had served on the board of the waste district since its inception. Grappe said McKinney has been “on point for this issue” at every stage. McKinney acknowledged the compliment, but said, “It seems like the ADEQ’s job was to make our job impossible.”
Rep. Kim Hendren explained the relatively low number of committee members in attendance. Legislative committees often hold meetings away from the capitol to address specific issues. In this case, a staff member for House Speaker Jeremy Gillam sent an email to committee members suggesting they not attend. The email said the speaker considered the meeting unnecessary, and also questioned the starting time of 6 p.m.
In response, King pointed out that a public meeting he sponsored a month ago had more than 300 people in attendance because he chose a 6 p.m. starting time to allow more public participation.
Several public meetings at that time attracted large and sometimes passionate crowds. This meeting drew a much smaller crowd, and many of those in attendance were Justices of the Peace from Carroll and Boone counties.
King and Ballinger are facing off in the Republican primary for State Senate on May 22.