Fort Smith moves fast to move sewer lines

FORT SMITH -- City directors learned this month the sanitary sewer lines from part of Northside High School and six nearby buildings are connected to the storm sewer system in violation of a consent decree making the city vulnerable to daily fines totaling thousands of dollars.

The problem became more public this week when directors voted to waive competitive bidding and award a $317,970 construction contract to Goodwin & Goodwin of Fort Smith to connect those lines to the sewer that runs beneath Rogers Avenue.

Allowing sewage to flow into the storm drain system "exposes the city to stipulated penalties of $500 a day for each of the six active sanitary sewer service connections to the storm drain from the date of their discovery until the date their discharge is disconnected," city Utilities Director Steve Parke wrote in an April 9 memorandum to directors. The line from Northside has been unused.

If the federal government decided to levy fines at $500 a day for each of the six lines since Feb. 9, when the cross-connected lines were discovered, the city will have accumulated $219,000 in stipulated penalties as of Thursday.

Parke didn't respond to a request for comment Thursday about the fines the city could face or why sewer lines are connected to the storm drain system.

City Engineer Stan Snodgrass said Thursday he believes cases of sewer lines still being connected to the storm drain system in Fort Smith are rare. The storm drain system drains directly into the Arkansas River, he said.

In an email from Parke the city released Thursday, he said sewage and storm runoff drained into the same system before 1965 and was discharged untreated into the Arkansas River. Fort Smith began treating its sewage in 1965, according to Parke's email.

"The city completed a comprehensive sewer separation project in the mid-1970s, which was to eliminate any remaining cross-connections of the sanitary sewer and storm drainage systems. This [Northside High School] area evidently was not addressed by the sewer separation work," the email said.

The email said he believed the seven buildings were built before 1965 and the storm drainage lines were installed at that time.

Parke wrote in the April 9 memo to directors the cross-connected lines were discovered during a review by city sewer maintenance staff of architectural drawings for Northside's plans to remodel an old building it owns at North 23rd Street and Rogers Avenue.

Instead of the line being connected to the sewer main, they found it was connected to the 36-inch storm drain under the south side of Rogers Avenue.

The staff then found six buildings in that stretch of Rogers Avenue, including two more that belong to the school, also discharged sewage into the storm drain, according to Parke's memo.

The awarding of the work contract was the last of 12 items Tuesday on the city directors' consent agenda, the part of the agenda generally containing housekeeping or noncontroversial items requiring directors' approval. Usually, the directors approve all the consent agenda items with little, if any, discussion in a single vote.

But the Rogers Avenue sewer project was singled out when resident David Armbruster asked why the normal bidding process wasn't followed.

City Administrator Ray Gosack explained about the misconnected lines and that they violated the federal Clean Water Act.

The bidding process for the project was shortened, he said, because the city has to resolve the violations as soon as possible as part of the consent decree Fort Smith signed with the U.S. Department of Justice, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the state in December.

Under the consent decree, the city agreed to resolve violations of the Clean Water Act and make government-mandated improvement to the sewer system within 12 years or face daily fines. City officials estimate it will cost $480 million to meet the requirements of the decree.

Directors earlier this month voted to raise sewer rates 60 percent in three phases over the next 20 months to raise money for the improvements.

When questioned by Director Tracy Pennartz, Gosack said the city immediately notified the regulatory agencies of the violations but hasn't received a response.

"My understanding from the consent decree is that it will be up to EPA Region 6 to determine whether or not they will assess penalties," Gosack said. "So, if they are going to do that, they will let us know that."

After discovering the cross-connected lines, the city staff hired Morrison-Shipley Engineers on Feb. 12 to design the sewer line extension allowing the proper connections to the sewer system, Parke wrote in his memo.

The city also applied to the Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department for a permit to excavate Rogers Avenue, also designated as Arkansas 22, to extend the sewer line. The state issued the permit March 13, Parke wrote.

As part of the abbreviated bidding process, city officials sent out bid requests to four general contractors March 30 to submit sealed bids by April 6, Parke's memo said. Three submitted bids with one later withdrawn. Aside from Goodwin & Goodwin, Forsgren Inc. of Fort Smith submitted a bid of $355,613.

The contract gives the contractor 30 days from the notice to proceed to disconnect the lines from the storm drain and connect them to the sewer so the seven buildings would be ready for service, Parke's memo said.

Officials weren't available Thursday to say when the notice to proceed would be issued.

Parke wrote the sewer work will create access problems for the affected businesses, disrupt traffic to Northside and require extended lane closings to the outside, westbound lane of Rogers Avenue.

To minimize disruption, he wrote in the memo, construction crews will work from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. and that all lanes of traffic will be open during daytime hours with access to all driveways in the area.

NW News on 04/24/2015

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