OPINION

MIKE MASTERSON: After the fire

All that smoke streaming for months from beneath the ground to waft across portions of residential Bella Vista has created considerable heat.

Between the outcry from a motivated neighborhood group and recent lawsuits, including the latest filed by Jim "Perennially Persistent" Parsons of Bella Vista, the legal after-effects from the much publicized stump-dump fire will smolder well into 2019. At question: Who will rightfully pay for the mess?

Chris Nelson with wife Sonja said he began gathering data soon after the fire started in the Trafalgar Road unpermitted residential section dumping ground leased from Blue Mountain Storage by the Bella Vista Property Owners Association and also used by Cooper Communities Inc. until 2016. His family lives 1,250 feet from the smoldering dump. A U.S. Army veteran and small business owner, Nelson understands emergency response methods.

"I initially flew the site with my drone a few times a month because after the initial blaze in July; I assumed the fire department had it under control. But the odor changed to a more noxious smell in November.

"After the first legal meeting about the fire, I began to identify the amount of people having medical conditions, much like our family, wasn't a coincidence, or only from trees or yard debris. My neighbors got organized and we started demanding answers after a city council meeting where, once again, the mayor and city council had nothing to say about the situation."

A Dec. 1 community meeting organized by his small group provided minimal information. However, he'd continued flying his drone over the smoldering site as he investigated further using photography and video skills. He said he found construction waste such as polybutylene pipe, PVC pipe, siding and a small barrel. "Some days there's blue smoke and others it's white," he added.

Nelson said his group installed monitors to determine the air quality. "We have filed multiple FOIA requests to the city and found the city was not engaged with getting ahead of this until after citizens got organized. There was very minimal engagement until the end of November," he told me.

An Aug. 2 state Department of Environmental Quality report contained photos revealing solid waste in the dump. However, Nelson said his group was told it was nothing until after EPA tests came back. "For almost four months officials told residents there was nothing to worry about as smoke infiltrated their homes and people were getting sick." His group established a website at www.bvstopthesmoke.org.

Nelson said he is "wearing many hats" in efforts to get appropriate action that would remove residents from harm's way and finally get the nearly eight-month-long fire extinguished. He also said he's been working with the High Heat Fire Specialists company from Ohio which "guarantees" it can get the fire out in a matter of days for $3 million, rather than the estimated $29 to $35 million. Sounds like a deal to me.

Nelson said his "educated opinion is Cooper Communities used this site to dump a lot of their construction waste while they were building Bella Vista. Additionally in 2008 CCI dumped their concrete mixing drums in the site with their logos that have since been removed. There have also been reports of city trucks dumping asphalt there. In October I was running 8-minute miles. I am now on four inhalers and have experienced chemical burns on my face and arms from helping neighbors on a particularly bad night and a neighbor's house was engulfed in smoke from a flare-up."

The Nelson family is far from alone in families affected by the continuing smoke, as borne out on the group's website. The Department of Environmental Quality is monitoring the air quality at two locations near the fire. An unhealthy reading in December prompted the state to caution everyone within a half-mile radius to avoid prolonged or heavy exertion outdoors. By late January, particulate readings were in the good-to-moderate range.

Meanwhile, this mess has triggered two lawsuits in Benton County Circuit Court. Parsons filed Feb. 6, aimed at forcing Blue Mountain Storage, a former property owner, and the Bella Vista Property Owners Association to pay the cost of extinguishing and cleaning up this persistent health hazard.

Parsons' lawsuit, alleging negligent oversight, names defendants Cooper Communities Inc., the Property Owners Association, and Tom Fredericks, who formerly owned Blue Mountain Storage and the stump dump property.

"Cooper and the POA have deep pockets,"Parsons said. "Here's where the money could come from. They need to clean up the mess they have made." Parsons added there's no proof as of yet that others used the property to dump waste or garbage.

Bella Vista residents Curtis and Tiffany Macomber filed the initial suit over the fire in November. The couple, who live near the dump site, sued Brown's Tree Care and "John Does 1-3." The Macombers claim the continued smoke has created a hazardous situation for their family.

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Mike Masterson is a longtime Arkansas journalist. Email him at [email protected].

Editorial on 02/19/2019

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