Bentonville, Arkansas – State environmental officials have decided that Benton County will not be formally cited for illegally demolishing a barn and moving the waste to a new site before burning it.

Spokesperson Doug Szenher said “we encounter violations every day of the week, but it doesn’t necessarily mean we’re going to proceed with enforcement action for every instance.” Benton County Judge Gary Black declined to comment on the state’s decision.

The environmental agency investigated the issue after local news team The Morning News began to look at how Benton County was disposing of its construction waste. According to residents living on North Big Springs Road, the county made a habit of dumping and burning waste at a site located on the road.

In July 2007, the county road department demolished an old barn, but did not do so via the state’s asbestos program. Following the demolition the waste was hauled to the North Big Springs Road site, where it was burned. Environmental officials say that the entire procedure violates state environmental laws.

Judge Black said in October 2007 that he had no knowledge of the incident. Former assistant Travis Harp said that the county had cleaned the site, and all debris was taken to a nearby landfill.

In fact, the debris was dumped in a ravine on a property owned by road department employee Jack Garrett.

State Inspector Doug Corter, employed in the agency’s asbestos and lead branch, began investigating the incident in early November and spoke to Judge Black, who again said that the waste had been taken to a landfill. Black later admitted it had been buried on private property. The private disposal site was cleaned up the same week.

Following the incident, a road department superintendent was verbally reprimanded over the incident. This was in fact the sole extent of any reprimands issued to department employees. A warning letter was also sent to Black confirming that the department had violated environmental laws.

Road department employees attended an educational seminar at the end of November after county employees admitted they did not know that any state regulations existed. Benton County is now ‘on record’ as having employees that know what regulations are in place.

Spokesman Doug Szenher said that a record was made that will be “taken into consideration if there are further problems.”

The stage agency could have imposed a fine of $10,000 per violation day, but chose not to because asbestos was “probably” not in the barn, and burning the debris “probably” did not pose a long-term environmental hazard.

This entry was posted on Monday, April 7th, 2008 at 3:38 pm and is filed under Arkansas. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS feed. Responses are currently closed, but you trackback from your own site.