Developers of a subdivision near Conway have reached an agreement with Conway Corp. for city sewer service.
The deal comes after months of concern from area residents about the developers' original plan for private sewer service that would discharge treated wastewater into Lake Conway.
The Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality issued a final permit to developers of Woodsland Edge subdivision for the private plant in August, noting that the discharge of treated wastewater fell within state regulations and met water quality standards. But developers Kevin and Tom Watson, of Watson and Watson, ultimately opted to work with Conway Corp. to address the concerns raised in the community.
"They're doing exactly what we hoped for them to, and we're thrilled," said Robert "Larry" Hill, president of the Lake Conway Home Owners Association, which supported the subdivision but opposed the treatment plant. "We're just happy that it's worked out like it has."
To connect to Conway Corp., the utility had to approve extending service beyond city boundaries, Conway Corp. CEO Richie Arnold said. The utility, like many other sewer utilities and unlike water utilities, has never before extended service outside city limits.
Before Conway Corp. would sign an agreement, the developers had to secure easements to land between the subdivision and the city, create a property owners association and find a method of billing residents for sewer service, Arnold said.
All of those conditions were met Thursday, and the utility, the property owners association and the association's wastewater operator signed an agreement for service. Because the subdivision is undeveloped, the property owners association currently consists only of the developers.
The agreement specifies that Alan McEntire of Waste Water Management Inc. will oversee and maintain the sewer line and pump station that will connect to a Conway Corp. force main, Arnold said. It also specifies that Vilonia Waterworks will be in charge of billing for the subdivision. The monthly rate for a homeowner will be $52, with most of the charges being for Conway Corp.'s and Vilonia Waterworks' services. Conway Corp. will get $28 for handling the sewage once it reaches the force main, and Vilonia Waterworks will get $4 for billing.
"It's so much better off in the long run, not that the other option would have ruined the world like other people said," Kevin Watson said. He added that connecting to Conway Corp. cost the developers about the same amount of money as the treatment plant would have cost.
The original plans for Woodsland Edge called for a wastewater treatment plant to be operated by McEntire. The plant would have discharged up to 30,000 gallons per day of treated wastewater into an unnamed tributary of Little Creek, which drains into Lake Conway, which eventually drains into the Arkansas River.
Conway Corp. does not discharge into Lake Conway but also sends its treated wastewater to the Arkansas River.
Waste Water Management operates other plants in the Conway area that have had violations for discharging unpermitted levels of nutrients -- a common issue for privately operated rural wastewater treatment plants. Department of Environmental Quality Director Becky Keogh said last month that about 50 percent of such plants have compliance issues, including unpermitted discharge levels and late or missing discharge monitoring reports.
The debate over the proposed Woodsland Edge subdivision, less than a mile east of Conway off Skunk Hollow Road, was one of a handful in central Arkansas. Proposed subdivisions outside Conway and Little Rock are pushed by developers who want to attract homebuyers where city corridors eventually might expand. They are opposed by neighbors in part because of wastewater treatment plants that have histories of violations in other locations and out of concern for their continued proliferation.
That debate has been compounded by concern for a law passed in 2015 that repealed the requirement of those treatment plants to provide proof that they had tens of thousands of dollars they could access for emergency operations or repairs. The plants now pay an annual fee of up to $1,000 each year into a statewide trust fund that caps at $2.1 million. That fund had $36,745 as of late July. That law was sponsored by Rep. Andy Davis, R-Little Rock, who sells and operates wastewater-treatment plants as the owner of New Water Systems.
In Faulkner County, neighbors and frequenters of Lake Conway were concerned that treated wastewater would harm the quality of the lake, particularly if the plant ever discharged effluent that violates water quality standards.
About 100 people attended a meeting in July to protest the proposed treatment plant, many noting that Lake Conway has had issues with pollution from wastewater previously. In 2014, Conway Corp. addressed those by closing one of its treatment plants and building the Tupelo Bayou treatment plant that bypasses Lake Conway and discharges into the Arkansas River.
With the agreement signed Thursday, treated wastewater will again bypass Lake Conway, and developers can now move forward with building out the subdivision.
Watson and Watson should have the sewer line, water line, roads and other infrastructure in place in the next four months, Kevin Watson said. Then the company will begin building homes.
"We're excited it worked out and we're happy to move forward, and we think it's a great cooperation of all parties involved," he said.
Metro on 09/18/2016