ROGERS — Establishing how a member of the Northwest Arkansas Conservation Authority will be charged to connect to the authority wastewater plant is complicated some members learned Tuesday.
Thomas Gould and Shawn Koorn of HDR Engineering Inc. met with Bentonville Mayor Bob McCaslin, City Attorney George Spence, Wastewater Manager Mike Rogers and Rick McClain, the authority’s plant manager.
At A Glance
Northwest Arkansas Conservation Authority
The Northwest Arkansas Conservation Authority was established as a regional wastewater treatment facility when Bentonville needed additional wastewater capacity and other cities were concerned with future Environmental Protection Agency constraints on phosphorous levels reaching the Illinois River.
• Members include Rogers, Springdale, Bentonville, Tontitown, Bethel Heights, Cave Springs, Centerton, Elm Springs, Highfill and Lowell.
• Bentonville and Tontitown are the only two member cities using the wastewater plant.
Source: Staff Report
Bentonville and Tontitown are the only authority member cities using the regional plant.
HDR Engineering was hired by the authority Board of Directors to complete an analysis on the financial aspects of other member cities connecting to the plant. The authority is paying HDR $24,950 for the project.
“There is more than one way to determine what the cost to connect to the plant would be,” Gould said.
He explained additional cities connecting to the plant will have to pay a buy-in fee and a conveyance fee, which likely will be based on the number of residents involved.
Debt service for the existing plant will be part of the fee, and the additional cities will be charged a per gallon fee or other measurement fee for the wastewater sent to the plant.
“The rate the new city would pay also would include some sort of reimbursement to Bentonville and Tontitown, because the cities have shouldered the entire debt load and plant operation costs. Again, there are different scenarios on how that could be done,” Gould said.
The plant is rated to treat 3.6 million gallons per day. If flow demand from an additional city dictated the plant had to be expanded, it would increase the cost, Gould said.
“The cost to expand the plant to 5.4 million gallons is approximately $13 million,” Gould said.
Exactly how the cost of expansion will be applied to different cities is another challenge to be addressed, Gould said.
Spence, who is also chairman of the authority Board of Directors, said his concern is to ensure representatives of cities connecting to the plant understand they are getting a fair deal.
“I don’t want anybody to think we are taking advantage of the situation,” Spence said.
Spence also said he doesn’t think a one-size-fits-all answer is what’s needed.
“We need to be able to make some changes to fit specific needs and situations. There is no simple way to predict the future cost of a wastewater facility,” Spence said.
The discussion on the cost of connecting to the authority plant needs to be taken up by the full authority board, Spence said.
He plans to call a meeting in February where Gould or another HDR representative can discuss the options. The date of the meeting has not been set.
Bill Brandt, representing Tontitown at the request of city officials, said the Tuesday meeting was just the beginning.
“I think we learned we have a basic framework, but haven’t addressed all of the challenges as yet,” Brandt said.
Brandt is a former member of the Tontitown Water and Sewer Commission. City officials recently dissolved the commission and formed a water and sewer committee.