After a brief stumble earlier this week, legislation intended to help fund the closure of a failed landfill in Baxter County moved closer to receiving Gov. Mike Beebe’s signature Wednesday afternoon.
The legislation, an amendment to House Bill 1040, the biennial appropriations bill that will fund the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality through June 30, 2015, would provide access to funds from the state’s Landfill Post-Closure Trust Fund for use in closing landfills that are in such bad financial shape that owners can’t afford to properly close them.
Although the language of the amendment does not mention any landfill specifically, the amendment’s sponsor, Sen. Johnny Key, R-Mountain Home, has publicly said the legislation is aimed at the North Arkansas Board of Regional Sanitation, commonly known as the NABORS landfill.
Typically, money from the approximately $23 million trust fund can only be used for post-closure activities, such as planting and maintaining vegetation on the site of former landfills to prevent land erosion. But under Key’s amendment, the Environmental Quality Department could withdraw money from the fund to pay for actual closure activities, including the closure of open trash cells, the removal of toxic-waste products and the ongoing monitoring of area groundwater.
The language of the amendment includes a “sunset provision” that ends the department’s ability to use the fund for closure activities on June 30, 2017.
The amendment was killed by voice vote Monday in the Joint Budget Committee after several members voiced concerns over the long-term financial ramifications for their districts. Rep. David Branscum, R-Marshall, opposed the legislation, fearing that once the Environmental Quality Department had used money from the trust fund to close NABORS, it would sue counties involved with the Ozark Mountain Solid Waste District, seeking turnback funds that would ordinarily be paid to counties.
Turn-back funds are tax money redistributed to Arkansas counties from the state, based on population.
“How are you going to sue counties that are broke anyway?” Branscum said. “Well, you go after their turn-back funds. Some of these counties, that’s the only money they’ve got.”
Branscum said that he met with Key later Monday, who clarified that while the language of the bill does provide for theEnvironmental Quality Department to “Institute a civil action against the regional solid waste management district and all of the entities composing the … district” to seek reimbursement of money taken from the trust fund, turn-back funds would not be subject to such legal action.
The Ozark Mountain Solid Waste District includes Baxter, Boone, Carroll, Marion, Newton and Searcy counties. In 2005, the directors of the district, including the county judges and mayors of several municipalities within the district, voted to purchase the landfill and its hauling service for about $8 million.
Key did not respond to requests for comment Wednesday.
Branscum and Rep. Kelley Linck, R-Yellville, spoke on the floor Tuesday in support of the amendment, which was then adopted by a voice vote in the committee. Wednesday morning, HB1040 was returned to the House of Representatives with the committee’s recommendation that it pass.
Linck said he was surprised when the amendment initially failed Monday.
“I didn’t see the ‘no’ coming and wasn’t prepared to defend [the amendment],” Linck said. “I think all of us in the House had to learn more about it. Sometimes, if we don’t understand something, I think it’s wise to vote it down, kill it, then come back and bring it back alive.”
Linck said that the legislation will allow the Environmental Quality Department to proceed with closing the landfill “sooner rather than later.”
“This will allow us to fix it now, instead of waiting years for the lawsuits to play out.”
Despite whether the Environmental Quality Department is ultimately allowed to access the post-closure trust fund to close NABORS, the department will proceed witha suit against the Ozark Mountain Solid Waste District filed in February 2013, department spokesman Katherine Benenati said Wednesday. The suit seeks $2.2 million from the district to supplement the $2.3 million that district administrators have on hand to properly close the site.
“This is all going to happen one way or another,” Linck said. “These counties are liable - they entered into an agreement on the landfill.”
Northwest Arkansas, Pages 7 on 03/06/2014