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The James Howard Mize and Patricia Dean Mize Joint Revocable Trust (“Trust”) filed a lawsuit on August 19 in the Circuit Court of Faulkner County, Arkansas, against the following two entities and one individual:

• Arkansas Composites, Inc. (“ACI”).
• Waste Water Management, Inc. (“WWMI”).
• Alan McEntire.

The trust is said to own 80 acres in Faulkner County, Arkansas, north of Conway. ACI is said to own 40 acres, also north of Conway.

The individual is said to have founded ACI to develop a settlement with 150 houses, which is to be located in the natural catchment area of ​​Lake Conway.

ACI is said to have granted WWMI two acres for the construction of a wastewater treatment plant for the settlement. In addition, the Arkansas Department of Energy and Environment – ​​Division of Environmental Quality (“DEQ”) is said to have issued a construction permit for a wastewater treatment plant in 2022.

The complaint states that the proposed wastewater treatment plant will have a capacity of 0.04158 million gallons per day. It will (according to the complaint) discharge its wastewater into a canal described as follows:

…small, short-lived, unnamed tributary that flows through the Trust’s property and empties into Lake Conway.

It is alleged that, apart from a periodic storm water runoff, sewage discharge accounts for the majority of the runoff from the unnamed tributary onto and through the Trust’s property.

The complaint alleges that the discharge:

• Cause or contribute to the pollution and deterioration of the unnamed tributary on and through the Trust’s property, thereby affecting the health and safety of persons living on that property and their pets and livestock.
• Cause or potentially contribute to the pollution of Lake Conway.

The complaint alleges that DEQ’s issuance of the permit to construct the wastewater treatment plant does not:

…preclude the initiation of legal action or relieve the permittee from any responsibility, liability, or penalty established under any applicable state law or regulation under the authority obtained by Section 510 of the Clean Water Act, nor does it convey any proprietary rights of any kind or exclusive privileges, nor does it constitute an invasion of private property or an infringement of personal rights, nor does it violate any federal, state, or local law or regulation.

The grounds of action relied on in the complaint include:

The action seeks a declaratory order as well as a temporary injunction and/or a temporary injunction.

A copy of the complaint can be downloaded here.