It’s almost 5:30 p.m. on a Thursday in May and people are pulling into St. Joseph’s Catholic Church’s parking lot off Highway 412 in Tontitown.
The Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ) is holding a public input meeting on a proposed expansion to the Waste Management Eco-Vista Class 1 Landfill. This type of landfill accepts nonhazardous municipal solid waste and is located on the southeast side of town.
The landfill serves Northwest Arkansas and as the region’s population grows, more trash is produced and collected. There are about 70-100 people sitting on foldable chairs or standing up in the back listening to ADEQ’s presentation.
Earlier in March, a different permit to expand Eco-Vista’s Class 4 landfill was approved. A Class 4 landfill only accepts nonhazardous, bulky debris that decomposes slowly. This includes construction and demolition trash, stumps and furniture.
After this, the City of Tontitown filed an appeal to the Arkansas Pollution Control and Ecology Commission (ARPCEC). Ross Noland, a lawyer for the city of Tontitown, said requiring municipal approval is one of the main points in theCity of Tontitown’s brief in support of summary judgment.
“It appears that we're going to have a hearing on the summary judgement motion in August and we will implore the administrative hearing officer to issue a recommended decision to the commission granting our motion for summary judgment," Noland said. "And of course, our lead claim there is that there is no local approval of (rule) 22.203 required local approval and therefore this permit (modification) should not have been issued.”
In 1997 the city granted its approval for the siting of the landfill and in 2018 passed a resolution to expand the Class 1 and Class 4 landfills. Tontitown’s city council passed two newer resolutions this past year and this year. In its brief, the town states it withdrew its support from the expansion through the resolutions.
ADEQ did not get back to Ozarks at Large in time for this story, but in the department’s brief it argues the city’s reliance on this rule requiring municipal approval is misplaced and does not apply.
The department states that the city gave approval before the most recent resolutions. In the department’s brief, it says a city needs to adopt restrictions on landfills with a county-wide land use plan. According to ADEQ’s brief there is no showing of a Washington County land use plan.
The Arkansas Pollution Control and Ecology Commission is scheduled to hold a meeting this month.
There are public comments submitted to the department expressing support for the expansion because it is the region’s landfill. Some say if the expansion is not approved then trash would need to go to other landfills further away resulting in higher costs.
Most of the people offering public in-person comment at the May meeting were against expanding the landfill. Residents spoke about their experiences with headaches, and expressed environmental and health concerns at the meeting and in submitted comments.
State Representative Steve Unger’s district is next to Tontitown. He spoke against approving the landfill’s expansion at the meeting and he says handling trash is a regional issue.
“And the fact that with our growing population, none of the leadership in the region has realized that even if Waste Management gets everything it wants out of the state, and it continues to grow," Unger said. "This patch of ground is bounded by rivers, roads and natural gas pipelines. It just cannot continue forever, but there doesn't seem to be a Plan B."
