Vertac Site
501-918-3025
calsfoundation@cals.org
calsfoundation@cals.org
Superfund Sites
In 1980, Congress passed, and President Jimmy Carter signed, the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA), commonly known as the Superfund law. CERCLA was created to deal with abandoned sites of industrial pollution. The act imposed taxes and fines upon companies to recover clean-up costs, and also established containment procedures for the pollution at such sites. This followed several years of highly publicized incidents related to industrial pollution, such as the 1974 contamination of Times Beach, Missouri—which was later evacuated due to high levels of dioxin in the city’s soil and water—as well as the eventual relocation of residents from the notorious Love Canal neighborhood of Niagara Falls, New York, which was the site of a chemical dump for Hooker Chemicals and Plastics Corporation.
In Arkansas, the most well-known Superfund site is probably the Vertac site in Jacksonville (Pulaski County), at which a series of chemical companies manufactured DDT (later banned for its harmful effects upon the environment), as well as 2,4-D (2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid) and 2,4,5-T (2,4,5-trichlorophenoxyacetic acid), from the late 1940s until the late 1980s, contaminating local creeks and wells with poisonous toxins. However, as of 2009, there are fourteen additional Superfund sites in the state, which includes a number of former industrial sites as well as regional landfills. Some of these sites have been declared safe for human activity, while others are still being monitored by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for the continued presence of toxins in the environment.
| COUNTY | NEAREST CITY/TOWN | SITE NAME | PROPOSED LISTING | CONSTRUCTION COMPLETE | STILL MONITORED? |
| Boone | Omaha | Arkwood, Inc. | 9/18/1985 | 6/28/1996 |
Yes |
| Crittenden | Edmondson | Gurley Pit | 12/30/1982 | 9/13/1994 |
No |
| Crittenden | West Memphis | South Eight Street Landfill | 2/7/1992 | 9/19/2000 |
No |
| Greene | Paragould | Monroe Auto Equipment | 10/26/1989 | 9/19/2001 |
Yes |
| Jackson | Newport | Cecil Lindsey | 12/30/1982 | 3/16/1989 |
No |
| Lawrence | Walnut Ridge | Frit Industries | 12/30/1982 | 10/14/1997 |
No |
| Lonoke | Jacksonville | Jacksonville Municipal Landfill | 1/22/1987 | 9/25/1995 |
No |
| Ouachita | Reader | Ouachita Nevada Wood Treater | 2/4/2000 | 9/21/2006 |
Yes |
| Polk | Mena | Mid-South Wood Products | 12/30/1982 | 9/28/1989 |
Yes |
| Pulaski | Jacksonville | Rogers Road Municipal Landfill | 1/22/1987 | 9/25/1995 |
Yes |
| Pulaski | Jacksonville | Vertac, Inc. | 12/30/1982 | 8/31/1998 |
Yes |
| Sebastian | Fort Smith | Industrial Waste Control | 12/30/1982 | 6/10/1992 |
No |
| Union | El Dorado | Popile, Inc. | 2/7/1992 | 9/28/2001 |
Yes |
| Yell | Ola | Midland Products | 10/15/1984 | 12/21/1993 |
Yes |
| Yell | Plainview | Mountain Pine Pressure Treating | 4/23/1999 | 9/28/2005 |
Yes |
For additional information:
“National Priorities List Sites in Arkansas.” Environmental Protection Agency. https://www.epa.gov/superfund/national-priorities-list-npl-sites-state#AR (accessed March 14, 2022).
Stone, Margaret Frances. “Small Town Superfund: History of the Vertac Superfund Site in Jacksonville, Arkansas.” MA thesis, University of Arkansas at Little Rock, 2024.
Staff of the CALS Encyclopedia of Arkansas
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I grew up in Jacksonville in the late 1980s and ’90s. I am only forty-seven years old and have a lot of health issues now. I would look out and see Vertac smoke fly up in the air. I didn’t know what I was being subjected to, nor did my mother. Contemplating getting more tests and going from there?!