POA takes over extinguishing Trafalgar fire

Keith Bryant/The Weekly Vista Smoke rises from the former stump dump site off Trafalgar Road. Preparation work onsite concluded near the end of April; and the excavation to get the underground fire under control, once started, is expected to take 30 days.
Keith Bryant/The Weekly Vista Smoke rises from the former stump dump site off Trafalgar Road. Preparation work onsite concluded near the end of April; and the excavation to get the underground fire under control, once started, is expected to take 30 days.

The Bella Vista POA agreed to take over extinguishing the Trafalgar Road Fire last week.

The POA assumed responsibility for the fire site last Friday, May 3. According to a news release issued by the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality, the ADEQ will continue to inspect the site and provide oversight while the POA works.

According to the release, the ADEQ notified the POA in January that it is, potentially, a responsible party with an obligation to contribute to managing and suppressing the fire, as well as remediating the site.

The ADEQ believes the POA is capable of correcting the situation in a timely manner, according to the release, and to an extent the fire will not reignite.

Tom Judson, chief operating officer with the POA, said that this is a joint decision between the POA and ADEQ. The board made the call in executive session last Friday, he said.

With the agreement signed, he said, the POA has seven days to submit a plan, after which the ADEQ has two days to review it. Once the plan is approved, he said, the POA has three days to mobilize and then 30 days to put the fire out.

"It's doable," Judson said.

The plan will be similar to the plan the ADEQ has presented to the general public, he said.

The total cost is currently estimated at about $4 million, which is significantly less than ADEQ's projections for the project.

The POA will pay for this using a combination of credit and available cash, he said. After close analysis of the association's cash flow, accounting for the $1 to $1.5 million the POA needs to keep on hand for regular expenses, the POA has about $2 million left over.

Last year, he said, the board of directors approved a $1 million line of credit, and another bank has agreed to lend an additional $1 million.

The POA will not be taking state money, he said, because the ADEQ will need to recoup any expenses it can, which could cost the POA more in the long run.

Selling the Ark/Mo land could help with a portion of this debt, he said, and the POA is cutting about $1 million from its budget -- though legal fees are going to dip into that cut, Judson estimated the POA could be looking at $250,000 to $500,000 in legal fees.

Cuts include capital project, labor and other expenses, he said.

"Pretty much everything across the board," Judson said. "Ultimately, my goal is, through these cutbacks and selling Ark/Mo, we can get large amounts of money and not have any negative impact on our property owners."

Judson said he expects insurance will ultimately help with these expenses, but it could take a long time.

Another concern is the final cost. Judson said he's confident in the $4 million estimate but, because the POA did not have complete control of the dump while it was open, it's hard to know exactly how much of what material is in it.

Because inorganic waste needs to be disposed of separately, he said, it could be a variable that drives costs higher.

The POA has hired three firms, including engineering firm Environmental Resources Management, or ERM; Mississippi-based E-3 Environmental, which will provide work onsite; and Little Rock-based toxicology consulting firm Center for Toxicology & Environmental Health, or CTH, a firm the POA says has experience in extinguishing large fires.

Outside contractors will be used because POA workers do not have the necessary OSHA HAZWOPER training to work on the former dump site, Judson said, though they may be working onsite once the fire is out and the site restoration process begins.

With the current timetable, the fire is expected to be out in a little over a month.

"We need to get it out for our residents," Judson said.

General News on 05/08/2019