Cloudy with occasional showers overnight. Low 58F. Winds S at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 60%..

Cloudy with occasional showers overnight. Low 58F. Winds S at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 60%.

County, state and federal officials met Friday, Dec. 9 at the Hot Spring County Courthouse to present information to area residents and answer questions about a troubling situation that’s come to light at the Malvern branch of Anthony Timberlands, Inc., a timber company with several locations around the state, including the local pine lumber sawmill facility located at 930 Cabe Avenue in Malvern.

The meeting included HSC Judge Dennis Thornton, Mayor Brenda Weldon, Randy Greathouse with the HSC Dept. of Emergency Management, Dist. 29 Rep Rick McClure, JP for Dist. 4 Darrin Hardy, Officials from the AR Department of Agriculture, water quality specialists from the state’s Natural Resources Conservation Service, officials from the Ark. Dept. of Environmental Quality (ADEQ), Jason Bolenbaugh and Alan York with the ADEQ’s Division of Environmental Quality, and several others from associated organizations who have a vested interest in ensuring environmental safety in the state. Anthony Timberlands, Inc., was invited to attend but did not send a representative to the meeting.

Anthony Timberlands in Malvern is one of the company’s seven locations around Arkansas, including Sheridan, Beirne, Hope, Bearden, Magnolia and Mount Holly. The Malvern site was purchased by ATI in 1974 and has an output of up to 120 million board feet per year, according to information available on their website.

An apparent discharge of thousands of gallons of hydraulic fluid and other contaminants has  reportedly been released into the seven-mile stretch of Chatman Creek that lies between the ATI facility on Cabe Avenue and the creek’s outlet at the Ouachita River. When the leak began, and what Anthony Timberlands intends to do about it, was the primary focus of the meeting.

York took the lead in fielding questions and laying out a loose timeline of events related to the incident. According to him, as well as documentation obtained through the ADEQ, a complaint was submitted through their Online Water Pollution Complaint portal on Feb. 2, 2022, from a local farmer who was afraid that “something in the water” was causing his livestock to die, stating “they are able to drink it when [it] rains and the water levels get high in an adjacent pond.”

York stated that the online submission was not initially addressed because “we believe it was an oversight,” but officials became more aware of a problem brewing in early September, when a different landowner contacted their agency on Sept. 2 with concerns about a possible sewer leak.

Inspectors with the ADEQ Office of Water Quality’s Compliance Branch contacted city sewer officials to rule out a possible leak in the system. Ten days later, on Sept. 12, they received notification of a suspected sewage leak near the Big Oak Sand and Gravel off Grigsby Ford Road.  “Water in Chatman Creek was reported to be black to bluish-black and have a strong sewage odor,” according to the ADEQ’s timeline.

The following day, inspectors determined that there was an active discharge in a concrete ditch situated south of the ATI facility. “Water was grey/black but did not smell of sewer/wastewater,” the timeline states.

OWQ Compliance Branch inspectors visited several more properties that day and observed discolorations of varying degrees and odors that were strong but not indicative of sewer discharge. On Sept. 14, they took water samples for testing at seven of the locations in question, including an unnamed tributary at the South Walco Road bridge, just south of the Anthony Timberland facility.

On Sept. 16, “OWQ Compliance Branch staff performe an inspection within ATI facility,” the documentation states. They found the facility’s clarifier/oil-water separator had a pump in need of repair, which was allowing a discharge of “hydrocarbons believed to be hydraulic fluid, process wastewater, and municipal water from the stormwater outfall.”

A petroleum sheen and black stains surrounding the sediments and wood debris in the ditch, plus an accumulation of hydrocarbons, or oil, in the ditch and results from the samples taken at properties in question were other stiff indicators that the discharge from the facility was carrying the hydrocarbons downstream.

Staff with OWQ Compliance Branch attempted to contact Jim Jones, VP of Pine Production who oversees the Malvern operations, on Sept. 16 to notify him of the findings and alert him to the need for remediation of the concrete ditch. Jones did not answer the call, and OWQ did not receive a call back until Sept. 22.

That same day, Bolenbaugh emailed Jones and Wilson Anthony, ATI’s director of regulatory compliance, with OWQ’s assertion that the Sept. 16 inspection of the Malvern facility found a broken pipe and faulty pump had led to oil discharge and accumulation in Chatman Creek and “immediate actions should be taken to remediate these areas and eliminate further discharge of pollutants”.

The Sept. 22 email exchange from Bolendaugh to Anthony reads:

“This pipe and the associated pump are designed to pump water from the bottom of the clarification system to the detention pond that is used to irrigate logs on site. Due to the inability of the system to pump water to the pond the water was discharging non-stormwater from Outfall 001. Ground conditions below the outfall and leading to the concrete stormwater ditch that borders the southern property boundary was very dark black due to oil accumulation.

“Furthermore, oil accumulation from Anthony Timberlands operation has formed within the concrete stormwater ditch and into the unnamed tributary of Town Creek on the western side of Walco Road. Immediate actions should be taken to remediate these areas and eliminate further discharge of pollutants to waters of the state. Second, I informed Mr. Jones of a discharge of water high in tannins on the west side of the facility between Walco Road and the piles of wood

debris that were being sprayed while I was on site. I noticed at least one sprayer that was on the west side of the wood pile in which any water running off the pile likely would not drain back to the detention pond. This type of discharge is unpermitted.

“At the time of the inspection water was discharging from the wooded area into the concrete stormwater ditch and then to the unnamed tributary. When I revisited the site on Monday, September 19, the discharge from the area was far less but was still occurring. On Wednesday, September 21, I visited the site again and the discharge was still occurring from the wooded area.”

The discharge of water reported to be high in tannins was related to a sawdust pile that had water sprayers directed at for the purpose of what ATI would refer to as “fire prevention/suppression,” but the measure is not working, as according to city fire department records, firefighters have been called to the facility five times so far this year for emergency assistance—once regarding a structure fire, and four calls regarding the sawdust pile. There was only one such call in 2021, none in 2020 and 2019, and one call in 2018.

Bolendaugh requested the mill conduct a site review of all the areas in question and provide the Compliance Branch with “proposed corrective measures to remediate the areas’ by Sept. 26, but they were given a one-week extension, after which Anthony requested through Alan York that the ADEQ provide more information about alleged pollutants before his company prepare a plan.

York responded that “While the investigation is ongoing, we believe that there has been a substantial, and potentially ongoing, release of hydrocarbons and other pollutants from the Anthony Timberlands-Malvern facility. That conclusion has been reached as a result of multiple visits to the area by DEQ staff that includes sampling events and field observations…substantial oil sheening, from what is believed to be hydraulic fuel, has been observed at your facility. It appears that the oil has flowed form your facility into the concrete ditch on the south and west side of the facility.”

The email went on to state, “The concrete ditch flows to an unnamed tributary to Town Creek. The unnamed tributary to Town Creek…shows the presence of numerous pollutants that DEQ is concerned about. It is then believed that the oil flowed from Town Creek to Chatman Creek and downstream toward the Ouachita.”

The subsequent Corrective Action Plan submitted by ATI on Oct. 3 states:

“In September 2022, the ADEQ noted a release of O & G from our facility at Outfall 001. This release was a result of the following:

 1. The facilty’s oil and water separator was not operating properly due to some piping issues which took longer than normal to repair due to long lead times on material.

2. A drainage ditch to the facility’s logyard pond was blocked in the mill which caused more water than usual to be directed towards the clarifier.

 3. A hydraulic leak caused by an employee overfilling a hydraulic unit led to a discharge into the facility’s waste stream.

The plan states that ATI has since repaired the oil/water separator, cleared the blockage in the ditch, and is implementing new BMPs, or Best Management Practices, regarding the storage of fuel and future inspection of the oil/water separator.

ADEQ’s response, dated Oct. 5, asserted that the documentation they received from ATI was incomplete and that their current permit “does not authorize the discharge of process generated wastewater from fire suppression as a normal practice.” They called for continued mitigation and additional permit coverage that may be needed.

According to the ADEQ, ATI has been operating with inappropriate permit coverage.

“Every industry in the state is required by law to apply for the appropriate permit coverage through our office, York said. “They will be required to get the appropriate permit coverage for their facility…And then as part of that process, they will, once reviewed and approved, they will have to implement that remediation and maintenance plan downstream.”

Enforcement officers with the Region 6 division of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency arrived in the Malvern area during the initial stages of the investigation back in September.

“They instituted what’s called a Statement of Work Plan, and that’s considered an emergency response measure, and that is what we’re still in the phases, is an emergency response phase,”  York said. “It’s important to understand that, from a regulatory perspective, that EPA Region 6 work plan is what’s in place right now, and since it’s been in place we have worked to get what’s called a remediation and maintenance plan from the responsible party.”

ATI submitted a plan in Nov., and the OWQ revised the plan and sent it back to the facility for further attention. York said ATI had submitted a revised plan the day prior to the Dec. 9 meeting, which will need careful review and finalization before the EPA will sign off on the final draft and authorize the steps outlined in the measure.

Several landowners who have been directly affected by the discharge were in attendance to make their frustrations heard and ask questions regarding when they can expect the cleanup work to be done.

“I just want to say from a landowner’s point of view, we do know that concrete ditch has been there since 2014, and I’ve been noticing this hazardous material that seemed to have an oil base running through and up under Walco Road back over to our land,” said one unnamed female landowner. “And I think it’s just a fuel dump, and the trees are dead, you don’t see any animals or birds around, and our cows are dying, and we have documentation of them early on, so this didn’t just happen in June.”

Anthony Timberlands has been giving the OWQ staff daily updates on their efforts. They’ve coordinated with ADEQ and hired ECCI out of Little Rock as consultants, and they contracted with TAS Environmental Services to do the cleanup.

TAS has utilized booms and pads in the concrete ditch to catch any residual petroleum, and they’ve recently increased the number of boots on the ground to expedite the cleanup process, but some officials say that this mess, possibly the biggest manmade disaster to ever hit the county, is going to require a lot of man hours and continual effort before the job is done.

A representative from Arkadelphia Water asked if his organization would be notified if any excess oil gets washed out into the water stream during future heavy rain events.

York said that his response was a little speculative, but what they believe is that the oil layer floating on the surface has been “mostly collected” but that there would invariably be residue from that oil, either on river banks or any area that was inundated with water, where the oil clung to leaves or debris.

“That residue should ideally be captured by a downstream boon as it moves downstream, there shouldn’t be petroleum product that gets loose of the downstream boons,” York said.

“ADEQ has looked at the data since August,” he said. “We didn’t see any abnormal bumps or ditches in the data.”

York said that, “This is a reactive situation right now” and that they’d sent ATI a cease and desist on any discharges on Nov. 19.

“Anything that wasn’t stormwater discharges,” he clarified. He added that ATI submitted a 156- page revised plan on Dec. 8.

“That plan, once we’ve finalized it, is going to be open for public review,” York said.

ATI pushed back on the allegation of a large petroleum leak being the culprit because they said that the numbers did not indicate a release of hydraulic fluid. York responded by stating:

“Where you begin to see water column concentration decrease coincides with the black precipitate on the stream bottom which is very high in [cobalt, chromium, iron, manganese, vanadium, and zinc]. As the metals absorb to black precipitating material, they will no longer show up in water column samples but are reflected in the black precipitate (Creek Bottom Deposits in the most recent data results.” Simply put, the water samples may not reflect the full scope of the damage because some pollutants will settle to the bottom and will not be picked up in samples of the water above.

“This situation has uncovered violations of their existing permit, [and] violations of other permits that they should have obtained, both on the water side, also on land resources,” York said.

Requests for information from Anthony Timberland and several affected landowners were not received in time for this publication. We will report further findings or communications as they are made available, as this is an ongoing investigation that will likely have multiple updates.