Westside Eagle-Observer

Health Department calls for more tests in Tontitown

The Arkansas Department of Health recommends more testing of the air in Tontitown — and beyond.

Complaints of foul smells around the Eco-Vista Landfill led to a series of tests of air quality in Tontitown within the past year.

Independen­t consultant CTEH of North Little Rock, an environmen­tal engineerin­g firm, conducted the most detailed air testing to date around the landfill. The firm took air samples at 14 different sites in Tontitown from April 28 to May 1. The state Department of Energy and Environmen­t ordered the testing and asked the state Department of Health to analyze the findings for health risks. The Health Department forwarded its findings in a letter to Energy and Environmen­t on Friday.

If resources allow, the Health Department recommends more testing at one of CTEH’s air sampling sites near the landfill, detailed sampling within the landfill site itself, four of CTEH sites further from the landfill, and in “a comparison community that does not have a landfill nearby.”

CTEH testing found higher-than-recommende­d levels of harmful chemicals, including benzene, a known cancer-causing agent. Yet those chemicals were found at sites far removed from the landfill in addition to ones closer to the landfill. In fact, the Health Department letter says: “The highest cancer risk was associated with naphthalen­e from an area located farther away from the landfill. However, even this level of cancer risk falls within an acceptable range as defined by the EPA,” referring to the federal Environmen­tal Protection Agency.

Naphthalen­e is the chemical found in mothballs, according to the letter.

Energy and Environmen­t “is evaluating funding sources and opportunit­ies to do further testing and continued coordinati­on with ADH,” the energy department said in a statement Friday. The Energy and Environmen­t Department regulates landfills through its Division of Environmen­tal Quality.

Rep. Robin Lundsturm, R-Elm Springs, represents Tontitown residents and the landfill is in her House district.

“I am glad that more testing has been called for,” Lundstrum said Friday.”

“We know there is a serious problem, and it needs to be addressed. We need to be talking about solutions.”

State Rep. Steve Unger, RSpringdal­e, said Friday that officials should “proceed immediatel­y” with additional testing.

While the levels of harmful chemicals found in the CTEH tests are higher than what the EPA recommends, those levels are “well within the background levels that would be expected in rural subdivisio­ns,” the Health Department’s letter states.

In short, the report says levels of the various threats in the air are higher than recommende­d but no higher than what’s found in similar sites. Testing somewhere else besides Tontitown will show if the levels of chemicals found there are typical to the region, the letter says.

The letter recommends more air sampling and monitoring “near area 2 and the four selected background sampling locations” farther from the landfill. Those four “background” areas are numbered 11 through 14, as identified in the latest CTEH report. Area 2 is near the landfill perimeter. The Health Department also recommends sampling on the landfill site itself. Testing in “a comparison community that does not have a landfill nearby” was also recommende­d.

Tontitown Mayor Angie Russell called for more testing at the landfill itself the same day the latest rounds of tests by CTEH were released, which was July 1. She called for on-site testing again on Friday.

“The report raises more questions than answers,” Russell said in a statement Friday. “There seem to be inconsiste­ncies between the report’s conclusion­s and the raw data that CTEH previously released. The report rightly recommends testing on the Eco-Vista site, which is only common sense. It is puzzling that ADEQ has not already requested this. The citizens of Tontitown are continuing to report serious health issues which they attribute to the landfill’s potent vapors. It is time to stop beating around the bush on this and conduct serious testing at the landfill site itself.”