Am I alone in detecting a bit of irony in the dilemma about extinguishing a dump fire in Northwest Arkansas? Republican Benton County has its hand out for state and federal money to fix a problem locals created. And its millionaires will have hands out to share in a whopping income tax cut for the rich this legislative session.
The Bella Vista Property Owners Association operated the dump for 13 years, through the end of 2016. Monitoring was lax. A tree service owns the property. A fire began underground at some point. The cost to extinguish the fire and clean up the site has been estimated as high as $39 million.
Republican Gov. Asa Hutchinson has already chipped in $1 million. The state environmental agency is at work digging a trench to limit
The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette article doesn’t mention if anyone has asked the property owners association to pitch in to clean up its smoldering dump.
This is a big disaster, of a magnitude that we
I’m reminded of an episode from my own past. I inherited several acres of Louisiana marshland many years ago. A patch of high ground near a highway was turned into an illegal dump. Eventually, the parish government cleaned it up They sent me and other absentee owners of the property the bill. We paid it. Maybe I should have called my congressman.