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Council discusses Arkansas DEQ landfill report; mayor says no noncompliance alleged for class 4 sites
Summary
Council members discussed a Division of Environmental Quality report on the city’s landfills. The mayor said the state report shows no major changes for class 4 sites but noted some class 1 regulatory concerns; a council member had earlier accused the mayor of being untruthful about the report.
Council members spent early minutes addressing a Division of Environmental Quality (DEQ) report on Helena’s landfills, distributed to council members and discussed publicly at the meeting.
Mayor Turner told the council he had provided copies of the DEQ report comparing October 2024 and January 2025 findings. “On the class 4, there’s no allegation of any noncompliance,” Turner said, adding that the reports are “essentially the same.” He said the class 1 inspection included photographs and noted some items “that don’t strictly meet the regulations” but did not, in his view, support more extreme allegations circulated by a council member via email.
Council member Saint Columbia had earlier alleged untruthfulness on the part of the mayor regarding the report. Turner responded that the email allegations overstated the report’s conclusions and said staff, including landfill personnel such as Raymund Wilson, would appear at a future meeting to provide more detail. “We have qualified and capable people out there working, including, Raymund Wilson,” Turner said.
There was no formal action, motion or vote on the report during the session; the council agreed to invite landfill staff to present a report at an upcoming meeting to answer questions raised by members.
The DEQ report itself was described as available online by council staff and as materially similar between the two periods compared. The meeting transcript does not quote the report text directly and does not show a formal finding of penal or enforcement action by the DEQ in the excerpt provided.
