Closure of DAMCO Water Impoundment Project finally underway

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The long anticipated closure of the DAMCO Water Impoundment Project in northern Baxter County is underway, according to Melinda Caldwell, Executive Director, of the Ozark Mountain Solid Waste District.The Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ)authorized construction of the DAMCO project in 1995. Within one year, the project was cited as out of compliance by the state agency when the amount of waste tires being collected for the private dam project had already exceeded approved amounts. By 2010, ADEQ records indicate notification was made for the waste tire baling and processing project to be discontinued immediately.According to an ADEQ report in April 2016, approximately one million tires were either in bales or in loose piles above ground needing to be addressed.

Caldwell says phase one of the closure project is underway and consists of the placement of tire bales, baling any loose tires and rebaling any tires that have been compromised.

Caldwell says phase one has a 100-day completion timeline. The work is being completed by SEMS of Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

With the completion of phase one, Caldwell says ADEQ will seek bid specifications for phase two, which will involve covering the placed baled tires with soil and presumably grass.

The end goal is a visibly tire free area. Accomplishing the task will mean extending the dam.

Estimates earlier from ADEQ set the cleanup cost at DAMCO to be around $1 million. Arkansas legislators passed House Bill 1705, now Act 1037, in 2015 authorizing ADEQ to use landfill closure funds for waste tire facilities.



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