Eco-Erroneous

When Whispers heard that Steve Rehbock, owner of Saddlebock Brewery in Springdale, had been named an Eco-Hero by Little Rock-based Arkansas Business Publishing Group, the parent company of Arkansas Business, our first-blush reaction was this: Really?

Whispers never thought of Rehbock as an Eco-Hero. Our recollection was that he’s the beer brewer who opened up shop in September 2012 before first obtaining final approval of his process waste disposal system from the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality.

Whispers remembers Rehbock as the guy who, according to state officials, ran process waste out of a pipe behind his brewery — a stone’s throw from Beaver Lake — and as the guy who last year ran afoul of both the Arkansas Department of Health and Beaver Water District, the guardian of our water supply here in Northwest Arkansas.

Yeah, that guy.

The guy who signed consent to an administrative order with the ADEQ — dated Aug. 20, 2013 — and agreed to pay a fine of $1,500 for literally creating a stink that, according to an investigator with the health department, resembled that from a hog pen.

The guy who told state environmental officials that his brewery only used two quarts of water a week to clean the brewery’s monster production tanks, and the guy who was selling his beer at a “tasting room” before first having a state retail food permit, according to the health department.

According to the feature article on Rehbock in the recently published Arkansas Green Guide, which is produced annually by ABPG, Rehbock — who made the guide’s cover — is driven by his “extreme green lifestyle.”

The story, penned by a Little Rock-based advertorial writer, failed to mention that Rehbock built his “sustainable” brewery on a piece of land that is not connected to the sewage systems of either Springdale or Fayetteville. Hence the problems with wastewater disposal and the straight pipe, which may have never come to light unless someone had seen it, knew it was wrong and complained.

Under the terms of the consent order with the ADEQ, Rehbock had to remove the bandit pipe and has to have all his process waste hauled to a permitted, off-site facility and submit invoices proving the waste is in fact being removed.

To be fair to Rehbock, it appears he has complied with state demands since the infamous pipe was discovered. Still, to Whispers this is a classic case of an old adage: It’s better to apologize than ask permission.

Eco-Hero? Yeah, right.