FORT SMITH -- The Fort Smith Board of Directors approved four resolutions pertaining to the city's consent decree during its regular meeting Tuesday.
Fort Smith officials signed a consent decree in 2015 with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Justice and the state. The city agreed to make an estimated $480 million in repairs and upgrades to its wastewater system over the course of 12 years to clear up chronic violations of the federal Clean Water Act.
To aid in fulfilling the requirements of the consent decree, the city raised its sewer rates by 167% from 2015-17.
Fort Smith announced May 8 that the EPA and the Arkansas Division of Environmental Quality had agreed the previous evening that the city had demonstrated that its sewer improvement program will be "inordinately expensive" and qualified for five more years of implementation time on top of the 12 already set forth.
They also agreed to grant more flexibility with certain interim deadlines, allowing the city to extend expensive system improvements over the entirety of the remaining schedule.
On Tuesday, the directors approved two resolutions that concerned the construction of "Sub-Basin P002 and P003 capacity improvements." The first authorized Mayor George McGill to execute a change order with the Poplar Bluff, Mo.-based KAJACS Contractors Inc. that added 94 days to the contract time for a 634 day period for final completion of the project and reduced the contract price by $379,349.79 to $9,515,650.21. The second accepted the project as complete and authorized a $532,719.81 final payment to KAJACS.
City Utility Director Lance McAvoy wrote in a memo that this project provided for the construction of a new "P002 and P003 interceptor" that was necessary to provide more capacity by the consent decree requirements.
"The project was designed to reduce sanitary sewer overflows by increasing the ability to transport inflow and infiltration of groundwater and storm water run-off," McAvoy wrote.
Another resolution that was approved authorized the mayor to execute a second change order with the Fort Smith-based Forsgren, Inc. for the construction of 2016 sanitary sewer assessment remedial measures in Sub-Basin P004. This added 48 days to the contract time for 392 days for final completion. This was accompanied by an additional resolution that accepted this project as complete while authorizing a $160,384.22 final payment to Forsgren.
"This project consists of the replacement and rehabilitation of approximately 5,400 linear feet of 8 to 12-inch sewer main, associated manholes and other appurtenances," McAvoy wrote.