EDITOR'S NOTE: This is third in a series of letters being submitted to the newspaper by the Concerned Citizens Coalition regarding issues that arose in 2015, with proposed solutions.
Dear editor:
The problem
Hot Springs Advertising and Promotion Commission announced plans to purchase the 500-acre UMETCO landfill. The purchase entails public tax revenues and a bond issue which would make it impossible for taxpayers to retire the 3-cent "hamburger tax," a tax originally designed as temporary.
Hot Springs A&P announced plans to spend $25-$40 million in public moneys to develop the landfill site as a regional sports complex, including baseball, softball and soccer fields.
The UMETCO landfill has been undergoing "reclamation" efforts for a decade and is considered a hazardous waste site.
Families living near the landfill have for years sought answers to chronic health problems they attribute to exposure to the landfill's contents.
The facts
Seven years ago, parents grew concerned about the proximity of a landfill to a children's soccer field located off Malvern Avenue. Families began sharing information. The UMETCO landfill contains 9,000,000 tons of industrial waste deposited in an unlined dump in a valley behind the Stanage neighborhood (3600 block of Malvern Avenue). The waste originated from 1960s-1980s vanadium-roasting operations at Stratcor Industries (formerly Union Carbide), located farther down Malvern Avenue.
Residents of the Stanage neighborhood have repeatedly asked the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ) to certify the safety of the landfill, to no avail. Several residents of the Stanage neighborhood died of the same rare cancer: bile duct cancer. For seven years, the community has archived information on a Facebook page called "Save Our Streams (SOS)."
After years of citizen requests, the Arkansas Department of Health (ADH) conducted a radiation study. The study focused on Indian Springs Creek, which emerges from the unlined landfill and empties into Lake Catherine via Spencer's Bay. Despite measuring radioactivity, ADH put out a memo that made no mention of the landfill. Instead, radioactivity was attributed to "geology."
After years of citizen requests for a Water Quality Study of Lake Catherine, ADEQ conducted a study that confirmed "vanadium present throughout the water column" downstream from Spencer's Bay, but NOT upstream. Despite biologists' calls for sediment and radiation tests, NO sediment OR radioactivity testing was included https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0BV4fKYROQ.
The landfill has recently undergone excavation of contaminated soils. Liquid from acidic wastewater retention ponds has been pumped out and trucked away, along with untold amounts of solid waste. Some waste went to the Yell County Landfill, where a portion was provided to an out-of-state laboratory for analysis by renowned scientist Anthony Samsel. Lab results measured 65.202 picocuries per gram of gamma radiation. Radioactive lead, radium and other substances were detected.
In 2013, plans for a multimillion-dollar sports/soccer complex were announced for the UMETCO site. FOIA requests uncovered tens of thousands of tax dollars going to out-of-state consultants for the project. Ironically, the original soccer field nearby that sparked family concerns has never been tested for radioactivity.
The solution
Work to educate the public about any pending bond issue to "develop" this radioactive site. Would you let your children play here?
Denise Parkinson
Concerned Citizens Coalition
Editorial on 02/03/2016