The Eureka Springs Independent has published 17 articles regarding the proposal by Scout Clean Energy to build 43 wind turbines hundreds of feet tall feet as part of the Nimbus Wind Facility located south of Green Forest. This week, the Independent reports on a proposed 161-kilovolt high voltage transmission line from near Green Forest to near Huntsville that would require 480-acres of easement that could be taken from private landowners by eminent domain. In both cases, the public has complained about lack of transparency with projects that would forever change the landscape being well on their way through permitting before most people found out about them.
The third major issue is the proposed spreading of industrial wastes from food, animal and animal processing plants on fields located near Green Forest in the same vicinity of the proposed Nimbus and the CECC lines. Dane Schumacher, a resident of rural Carroll County, said this permit would allow for the over-application of phosphorus to soils that do not need the phosphorus; the watershed is already a Nutrient Surplus Area as described in the permit.
Schumacher said the beautiful environs of Carroll County should not be used as a dumping ground for industrial waste. “Some of the fields sit atop karst terrain, which is extremely vulnerable to contamination, and some of the fields are not far from the Kings River,” he said.
The Kings River is a popular canoeing, swimming, fishing and camping area.
Eureka Springs Mayor Butch Berry sent a letter on April 17, the day public comments ended, to the ADEQ stating his opposition to the permit to allow Denali of Russellville to spread industrial waste in Carroll County. “Please hold a public hearing on this permit,” Berry requested.
Chris Fischer said when he tried to find information about the industrial waste permit on the ADEQ website, he was unable to find basic information, such as what entity was applying for the permit, how much would be applied, and what steps would be taken to monitor the application for problems with excessive nutrient runoff.
“It’s confusing to everybody,” Fischer said. “I searched on ADEQ’s website and could find nothing about what is involved in the permit. I found it impermeable to figure out what is going on. How does the average citizen go online to ADEQ and figure out how to participate in public comments? There are three compounding consequential projects unfolding, and where is there a good source of public information for those projects that would have an extensive impact to a large area of eastern Carroll County?”
Fischer put together a map overlaid with the routes for Nimbus, the CECC transmission lines, and the proposed fields for disposal of industrial waste.
“We don’t really have any standing organization capable of reviewing these permit project scenarios,” Fischer said. “The Carroll County Quorum Court states in its Land Use Plan adopted in 2011 that the Quorum Court should be notified by state and federal agencies of major projects. Why doesn’t a justice of the peace bring at least a discussion of the permit process the QC is supposed to be notified of?”
A larger issue, one that came up with the hog factory in the Buffalo National River watershed, as well as the SWEPCO controversy, is that the public often not finding out about these projects until far along in permitting.
“Is there a sufficient public notice process?” Fischer asks. “From my standpoint, no. And who is responsible for this dissemination of information?”
In the case of the high-voltage transmission lines planned by SWEPCO, small public notices in an out-of-town daily newspaper were not easily seen by the people affected. The first many people knew of the project, which was defeated nine years ago, was when they got notices from SWEPCO that their land was needed for the right-of-way easements.