A consent order from the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality dealing with Jefferson County’s tire recycling program will be considered by committees of Jefferson County Quorum Court Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. The meeting will be held in the quorum courtroom of the courthouse.
The order was the result of an inspection of the tire recycling facility on Gravel Pit Road in April, which indicated that the facility was exceeding its maximum storage limit of processed tires.
State regulations limit the maximum amount of tire chips to 450 tons, and the inspection revealed that the facility was storing 11,000 tons of tire chips.
Additionally, since Jefferson County processes tires for the Southeast Arkansas Solid Waste Management District, which consists of nine other counties in addition to Jefferson County, the processing facility was determined to be violating a state regulation by accepting tires for processing after reaching its storage capacity limit.
The solid waste management district was also found to be violating a state regulation dealing with the payments they were making to the Jefferson County recycling operation with those funds coming from a state grant awarded the district by the state agency.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
The district was paying 36.2 percent of the total grant and according to the consent order, should have been paying a per tire or per ton amount instead.
The agreement between the county and the state provides that the county will submit a corrective action plan within 30 days including a time schedule for reducing the waste tires stored at the site to an amount less than the allowable limit, and if the state determines the plans are deficient, will submit additional information within 20 days. Failure to provide that additional information could result in civil penalties against the county.
The regional management district will also have to submit a plan including a schedule for removing excess tire collections from their collection centers in the district, a contingency plan in the event that Jefferson County can’t manage all the tires at any period of time which would provide for diverting those tires to an alternate approved disposal facility, and that payments to Jefferson County meet state regulations.
The district will also submit within 30 days a grant application to ADEQ for recycling grants to upgrade and make major repairs to the processing equipment for recycling waste tires. In turn, ADEQ will release grant funds currently available upon completion of an application and approval of the district’s corrective action plan.
As a part of the consent order, County Judge Mike Holcomb and Treasurer Elizabeth Rinchuso are authorized to spend funds necessary to comply with the state’s order.
Also Tuesday, the county’s legislative body will consider a $40,000 appropriation to cover the costs of school board elections and likely run-offs since there are three candidates in some of those races. Election Coordinator Will Fox said in a letter to Holcomb that a majority of that money will be reimbursed by the school districts before the end of November.
A $15,000 appropriation from the Sheriff’s Department Adult Jail Fund to the city of Pine Bluff Summer Youth Program will also be considered.