Good Earth grading and burn permits revoked

Williams Volunteer Fire Department responds to unattended burn at mill site two times, city officials waiting for site plan

WILLIAMS, Ariz. - Late last month, Good Earth Power AZ announced that it was starting site cleanup for its sawmill on Garland Prairie Road, and that the facility would be operational by the end of March.

However, officials with the city of Williams say they don't expect the sawmill to open any time soon, since they revoked Good Earth's permits after a series of non-compliant burning operations.

The city issued a burn permit to Good Earth, which will support vegetation management from the Four Forest Restoration Initiative (4FRI), around Jan. 20. The permit requires someone to monitor the burn at all times and for the permit holder to have a way to extinguish the fire. The city issued an at-risk grading permit to the company on Jan. 29.

On Feb. 14, the Williams Volunteer Fire Department responded to a call that Good Earth's woodpiles were burning unmanned. Fire Chief Chase Pearson said the fire department's first response served as a warning.

"We just reiterated what the rules of the burn permit were and then they were allowed to continue to burn after that point," he said. "We definitely work with people on everything we do. Certainly if there's a question or some misunderstanding we definitely work it out before we just take away someone's permit."

A week later on Feb. 22, the Williams Volunteer Fire Department responded to a second call that Good Earth's piles had flared up and were burning unmanned.

"With any burn permit it's supposed to be out before you leave, so you don't burn too much that it will continue burning," Pearson said. "After the second response out there then we said no more."

At both incidents, fire personnel observed visible flames in the burn piles with no one monitoring them. Fire fighters used water to suppress the fires and remained on scene until a Good Earth representative arrived.

The city revoked Good Earth's burn permit on Feb. 23. In a letter to Good Earth's Martin Gillard, Pearson wrote: "Williams Fire Department has observed numerous violations of the permit, with the most recent event being 02/22/2015 in which there were piles burning unattended. This was the second time that fire personnel were requested to control burning in the area. Any burning observed at this location will be considered a reckless burn and the property owner will be subject to citations, fines and/or reimbursement for firefighting efforts."

Since there used to be a wood processing plant at the Good Earth site in the past, the soil contains wood remnants that pose a fire risk.

"A fire can become deep-seated in that sawdust and remain smoldering for a long period of time where it won't release any heat or smoke that you can tell, and so the fire may not be completely out and then may rekindle once it comes back to the surface," Pearson said.

Williams' Building Inspector Tim Pettit said the layer of old wood chips and mulch is about 10-15 feet deep in the soil.

"From what I've been told with these types of fires, you may have to dig the whole thing up and haul it away to put it out," he said, adding that the piles were still smoldering at press time.

At the end of February, city officials had a meeting with Good Earth representatives to reiterate that the fire needed to be extinguished. When Good Earth did not follow through, Pettit decided on March 12 to revoke the grading permit in addition to the burn permit.

"It's mainly just to get their attention to start coming into some sort of compliance," he said. "We are all just kind of frustrated and tired of wasting our time so maybe this will help them get going."

Response from Good Earth

The day after the burn permit was revoked, Good Earth sent an electronic newsletter to the Williams News on Feb. 24, saying that the group would start drainage and grading work once the weather improved.

When asked about the permit issue last week, Good Earth spokesperson Lori Martinek called the non-compliant burning an accident.

"Apparently, the city of Williams pulled the burn permit because some piles were left 'smoldering' by their account," she said in an email last week. "That was unintentional, the area was completely snow covered and there was no danger. The entire area has been bulldozed to remedy any potential issue."

Good Earth's construction manager, Tim Kinney of Kinney Construction Services, said the group was hearing complaints from the city even before they started burning.

"Before we even started our burn, like a week before, we would get calls from the city saying that we're burning tires out there, we're not complying with the burn permit, and we hadn't even started burning," Kinney said. "So what we have is we have a neighbor out there that's really harassing."

Kinney said that someone was on site monitoring the burns during the day, but they left after putting the fires out at the end of each day. The smoldering was a result of the wood remnants in the soil from prior milling activity.

"So after the fire is completely out, like over a weekend something might flare up again like burning under the soil," Kinney said. "That was completely out of our control that that started again. It was nothing we did on purpose. It flared up by itself."

Pettit said regardless of the circumstances, it was still Good Earth's duty to monitor the burn.

"After their original burn, they thought they had it out, which is still their responsibility," he said.

Kinney said that Good Earth's piece of property has a 20,000-gallon pond with a pump that workers used to douse the smoldering piles when the issue was brought to their attention. About four piles are still left to burn pending a new burn permit from the city.

"We are out there correcting the problem," Kinney said. "We hope to have our grading permit back in place so we can begin work and do the right thing. Good Earth has been doing everything by the book. So hopefully we will have more cooperation with the neighbors and the city when they realize we are doing a very good job out there. We're just hoping to be able to start work again and create some jobs and a nice operation out there."

According to Pettit, Good Earth will probably never get another burn permit because of their repeated violations. If that's the case, Good Earth will need to haul the debris off of the site to get rid of it instead of burning it. He added that he would reinstate the grading permit as soon as he received a site plan.

"I want to see if they're for real. If they're really interested, if this is what their real intent is, it shouldn't be a big deal to put a site plan together," he said. "We don't mind helping them, we really want to see them succeed, but they're not helping us at all."

If the burn issue isn't resolved soon, the city can resort to fining Good Earth. Misdemeanor fines in the city range from $100 to $2,000.

"Each day is a separate offense, so those days could accumulate in a hurry," Pettit said. "We'd rather them just handle the situation, but if they move like they have on everything else they might get a fine."

In spite of the issues with the burn permit, Pettit said the city would like Good Earth to move ahead with their plans.

"We do look forward to them being here," he said. "They just need to get all of the procedures in place before we let them continue on."