Officials from the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality claim they’re unaware of any way the Ozark Mountain Solid Waste District’s financial collapse could have been prevented. According to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, an agency attorney told the Arkansas Pollution Control and Ecology Commission Friday they would also be unable to prevent another collapse in the future.
The ADEQ is spending $12.9 million to bail out the local district. However, the money is being recouped through a fee of $18 per year to be paid by residents of Baxter, Marion, Searcy, Boone, Newton and Carroll Counties.
Nearly a month ago, ADEQ was instructed to issue a written report on how the department’s multimillion-dollar takeover of the NABORS landfill in Baxter County could’ve been avoided. Commissioner Wesley Stiles had asked the department to provide him with a report a year ago to explain the landfill situation. He asked ADEQ Director Becky Keogh why he had not yet received a report. Keogh said she understood an oral report would suffice.
Stiles said he believes local entities made mistakes resulting in the NABORS landfill becoming financially unsustainable, but he wondered why ADEQ hadn’t intervened sooner since it oversees regional solid waste management districts. Keogh said the department can’t always prevent decisions made on a local level, and the departments works with solid waste districts to track landfills’ financial status.
ADEQ attorney Mike McAlister says while he arrived before the district’s financial troubles, he did not believe the department had any choices that would have drastically changed the outcome.
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