West Fork is working to stop raw sewage leaking from the wastewater treatment plant and into the White River, according to a letter to the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality.
The letter, submitted Monday, was in response to the state's emergency order Friday. The agency demanded the city do something to stop the leaking. Inspectors visited the plant several times in the past two weeks.
The city is responding, but the flow into the collection system "exceeds the plant's treatment capacity during wet weather conditions," Michael "Butch" Bartholomew, utilities superintendent, wrote.
Bartholomew suggested pumping excess flow into the plant's flow equalization pond. The equalization pond overflows into a second pond that discharges treated wastewater. West Fork's proposal to fix the problem would provide "some" treatment to the wastewater overflowing from the plant's influent manhole, according to the letter.
"This represents a bypass of the mechanical activated sludge treatment plant, but the wastewater will receive some treatment as it passes through the two ponds," Bartholomew wrote.
West Fork has cleaned the area affected by the discharge, he wrote.
West Fork has plans for a survey of its collection system as part of a project to funnel wastewater to Fayetteville. The survey will help employees repair the aging West Fork plant, said Robert White, project engineer with McClelland Consulting Engineers.
The state agency was reviewing the city's response Monday afternoon, spokeswoman Katherine Benenati said.
"(The plan) could not be approved on a long-term basis," she said.
NW News on 04/16/2014