A state environmental commission Friday dismissed a request by a conservation group to reopen a consent agreement with El Dorado Water Utilities for using unapproved materials in building a wastewater pipeline.
The group, Save the Ouachita, challenged the agreement issued by the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality after the water utility reported installing an unauthorized type of pipe to carry the waste.
Save the Ouachita has argued that the pipe the waterutility used in parts of the 27.5-mile pipeline is substandard. They had sought to offer testimony to that effect, including a federal lawsuit alleging the company that made the pipe sold a substandard product.
The department fined the water utility $15,000 but changed the permit specifications without a public comment period, which should have been required, said David Carruth, a Clarendon-based attorney for the group.
“That totally abrogates and circumvents the permitting process,” Carruth said.
Carruth asked the Pollution Control and Ecology Commission to set aside the consent agreement and to have a hearing on whether the department erred in its settlement with thewater utility. The commission voted 6-2 to deny the hearing and dismiss Save the Ouachita’s complaint.
Carruth said after the hearing that he would discuss the commission’s ruling with his clients and decide whether to appeal.
The department issued the construction permit in February 2007 with the water utility agreeing to use a specific kind of pipe that could handle the pressure of the line and the corrosive materials that it would carry, Carruth said.
Several businesses, including the Lion Oil Company, El Dorado Chemical Company and the Great Lakes Chemical Company, use the pipeline to transport industrial wastewater to the Ouachita River.
On Aug. 27, 2013, a consultant for the water utility sent a notice to the department, informing it that constructionon the pipeline was complete. The notice included references to materials that deviated from the permitted plans.
The department raised questions about the materials, which the water utility defended as meeting industry standards.
The water utility agreed to a consent order in December and accepted a $15,000 fine for failing to issue a permit modification for the unauthorized pipe, according to commission filings.
Save the Ouachita filed the petition for a hearing the next month.
Chuck Nestrud, a Little Rock attorney for the water utility, said the materials used by the water utility were “equivalent” replacements for the initial pipe. He said Carruth was not providing any new information that the department had not already considered.
“The only evidence he presented are 25 photographs [of the pipeline]. That’s it,” Nestrud said.
Commissioner John Simpson, one of the two commissioners to vote in favor of holding a hearing on the consent agreement, asked what Save the Ouachita’s ultimate goal was in its petition.
Carruth said the group understands it will likely not get the pipeline shut down, but had concerns about how the department modified the construction permit without reopening the permit for public comment.
Carruth said in an interview that the way the department made the permit change was not appropriate.
“I’m disturbed that the [commission] would validate basically granting a permit after the fact,” Carruth said. “That’s troubling, that’s very troubling.”
Northwest Arkansas, Pages 9 on 03/29/2014