An appeal of the Little Rock Planning Commission's rejection of a proposed wastewater treatment plant just outside of city limits will be heard by the city board Tuesday night.
Rick Ferguson, developer of the proposed Mountain Valley subdivision, appealed the commission's rejection of a wastewater treatment plant he planned for his subdivision.
Plans for Mountain Valley subdivision are for 111 lots on 34 acres just west of Little Rock but within the city's extraterritorial jurisdiction. The subdivision has not been reviewed by the city planning commission, and plans for it won't go before the commission unless the plant is approved by the board.
The plant would discharge about 40,000 gallons of treated wastewater per day into Nowlin Creek, which neighbors use for swimming in the summer, flows into Little Maumelle River, and then into the Arkansas River.
The Arkansas Department of Health has approved the plant. The Department of Environmental Quality, which also must approve of it, issued a draft permit in December 2015 but suspended permit review until after the city decides.
Phone messages left for Ferguson last week were not returned.
The planning commission rejected the plant by a vote of 10-1 in July after testimony for and against the plant, including a recommendation by city staff to deny the permit. The subdivision was "leapfrogging over 2 miles of rural development and undeveloped land to construct an urban residential development," city Zoning and Subdivision Manager Dana Carney told the commission. But subdivision engineer Joe White argued that sort of development was typical.
Numerous objections to the plant have come from people who fear a wastewater treatment plant owned by a developer or, eventually, a property owners' association would not be as adequately kept up or as frequently monitored as municipal or commercial plants. They fear the plant might also make Nowlin Creek no longer safe to swim in.
The Department of Environmental Quality has said permit limits for the plant are set at levels that, if met, would keep the creek safe for swimming.
Drew Kelso, president of Concerned Citizens of West Pulaski County, cited similarly managed non-municipal plants across Arkansas that had frequent effluent violations and said property owners' associations -- which frequently take over wastewater treatment plants once subdivisions are completed -- are not fit to operate the plants.
"POAs can't even agree on what plants to put at the gate. ... They're notoriously weak organizations. I should know, I'm president of one out here," said Kelso, who ishead of the less dense Chenal Downs, where residents have septic tanks instead of a wastewater treatment plant.
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"I know plenty of other presidents of POAs, and they would agree with me," he added. "We have no business being utilities."
The Department of Environmental Quality has estimated about 50 percent of non-municipal wastewater treatment plants have compliance issues, although many of those are related to paperwork and not just effluent violations. Effluent is the treated wastewater discharged into a body of water, and it is regulated by limits on how clean the water has to be.
Arlo Cyz, who had signed on with Ferguson to operate the treatment plant, said effluent violations can be caused by unexpected conditions in the wastewater itself and take less than a week to fix. In any case, he said, the plants he operates at Alotian Golf Club and Waterview Estates have not had any issues with effluent.
Department inspections indicate that both sites have had issues with monitoring and corrosion within the past several years but do not indicate effluent violations. The department did not answer a question last week about whether Cyz's company, Arkansas Wastewater, had any violations.
"Some owners are more lackadaisical about repairing issues," Cyz said. "That's when you have problems."
Under a Department of Environmental Quality permit, Cyz would have to submit monthly discharge monitoring reports that would detail the quality of the effluent and whether it's meeting the limits set for it. Cyz said his workers would test the water as frequently as they might be paid to do so. That could be every day or less frequently, he said.
Kelso and others also have expressed concern about a 2015 state law that repealed financial-assurance requirements for rural non-municipal wastewater treatment plants. That law required operators of such plants to pay an annual fee not to exceed $1,000 each year into a trust fund instead.
Requiring financial assurance meant that a wastewater plant operator needed a bond or a letter of credit assuring the state Department of Environmental Quality that it had a way of financing major improvements if needed -- tens of thousands of dollars for many operators.
Those requirements were too arduous, according to Rep. Andy Davis, R-Little Rock, who sponsored the law. Davis sells and operates wastewater-treatment plants as the owner of New Water Systems.
That trust fund had a balance of $46,455 as of Friday, up from $36,745 in July. Department of Environmental Quality Director Becky Keogh indicated Friday that the department has discussed possible legislative changes to the trust fund with state representatives.
Kelso said he's concerned the trust fund is inadequate and would not cover improvements that might be needed at plants with environmental violations.
However the board votes Tuesday, the decision can be appealed to circuit court within 30 days, said Donna James, city subdivision administrator. If the board sides with the planning commission, James said, Ferguson would have to submit a substantially different application for a plant to be reconsidered or wait a year from the board's decision and apply again.
Metro on 12/05/2016