West Fork Officials Face Sewer Decision

West Fork City Council members received an update last week on a state financing

Meeting Information

West Fork City Council

When: 6:30 p.m., June 11

Where: City Administration Building, 262 Main St.

package that will help the city tie into Fayetteville’s sewer system.

The Arkansas Natural Resources Commission in March approved a $4.1 million loan through the state’s Clean Water Revolving Loan Fund. The loan would likely be repaid through a rate hike or increased sales tax, but West Fork officials weren’t saying Friday which option they’ll pursue.

An additional $1.2 million grant from the Natural Resources Commission for the estimated $5.3 million project would not have to be repaid.

Butch Bartholomew, the city’s water and wastewater superintendent, said Friday $4.1 million would be too much for West Fork’s limited number of ratepayers to bear. The city’s entire water department budget last year was about $650,000.

Mayor Frances Hime said she’s not in favor of increasing the sales tax to pay for the project.

“Our tax rate is currently 9.25 percent,” Hime said.

Bartholomew said he and Robert White, an engineer with McClelland Consulting Engineers, are trying to get more money from the Natural Resources Commission.

Mark Bennett, chief of water development at the commission, said the state agency might be receptive to their request.

“I think they will probably be awarded some additional funds,” Bennett said. “I’m concerned that’s there’s going to have to be significant rate increases in West Fork, and we’re working with them to minimize that.”

Hime said she anticipates an update from Bartholomew at the City Council’s June 11 meeting.

The Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality in April 2012 directed West Fork to find a solution for its 42-year-old sewage treatment plant, which has repeatedly exceeded discharge limits in the West Fork of the White River. The department recorded 45 pollution violations since 2009, mostly for high levels of ammonia nitrogen and fecal coliform bacteria, both of which can be toxic to aquatic life.

State officials have given West Fork until March 31, 2015, to connect to Fayetteville’s system, which also treats sewage from Elkins, Farmington, Greenland and south Johnson. West Fork is responsible for all design, construction and land acquisition costs. Once the connection is completed, the city will likely receive one bill each month from Fayetteville, based on metered flow measured at one connection point. It would then be up to West Fork’s Water and Wastewater Commission to divvy up sewer costs among its customers.

The Fayetteville City Council in December approved a resolution expressing their intent to allow the connection. Since then, White and West Fork officials have been working to design a nearly 9-mile pipeline. The pipeline would tie into Fayetteville’s system near the Washington County Juvenile Detention Center on Clydesdale Drive. A pump station will likely be built about a quarter-mile south of the Baptist Ford Church in Greenland, White said.

David Jurgens, Fayetteville’s utilities director, said Friday the city recently asked the Department of Environmental Quality to increase permitted capacity at the Noland Wastewater Treatment Facility from 11.2 million gallons of sewage per day to 11.4 million gallons per day. Jurgens said the West Fork sewer plant treated an average of 0.12 million gallons of sewage per day during the past three years, but Fayetteville is conducting a study to verify those levels.

“It would be unwise of me not to plan for some growth,” Jurgens said, adding, “We’re very carefully going through and drafting a contract to make sure it meets everybody's needs and provides adequate protections to both parties now and in the future.”

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