Dive Brief:

• The Arkansas Building Authority has begun taking bids for the North Arkansas Board of Regional Sanitation (NABORS) landfill in the city of Mountain Home, as reported by Arkansas Online.
• Previous estimates have put the cost of the project anywhere from $13 million to $18 million, though officials have since said they don't expect it to end up being that high. Funding will come from a post-closure trust fund that likely won't be accessed until the 2018 fiscal year.
• The project's design professional is Kansas-based SCS Aquaterra. Prospective contractors must attend a preliminary conference on Sept. 6 and have until Sept. 13 to submit their bids.

Dive Insight:

The situation at NABORS has been complicated since it stopped accepting waste in 2012 after the Ozark Mountain Regional Solid Waste District's board voted to default on the $12.3 million bond issue that allowed it to purchase the site. In 2014, the state's Department of Environmental Quality gave the district a special recycling grant for approximately $138,000 to take away leachate after multiple leaks. Eventually the landfill was placed into receivership with the state after local voters decided against taking it over.

Questions of responsibility and cost have continued this year and contributed to an already complicated set of issues around the powers of solid waste districts in the state. In May, the Benton County Regional Solid Waste Management District filed a lawsuit seeking to have a portion of Arkansas state law regarding solid waste fees declared unconstitutional.

The state's scrap tire management districts have also been under scrutiny lately due to questions of financial issues and reporting accuracy. Lawmakers asked for an audit of the system earlier this summer and have indicated they may pursue legislation to change it next year.