As odd as it may seem to many, I've lately felt twinges of compassion for a town.
My heart goes out to the folks in beleaguered Bethel Heights, a friendly northwest Arkansas community bedeviled by seven years of sewage wastewater leaking from its woefully inadequate treatment system.
I feel even worse for the landowner on the receiving end of the city's toxic mess that has continuously accumulated on their property around the plants.
Adjacent to Springdale, Bethel Heights has been out of compliance more often than in line with its state sewage permit since 2015. It's endured problems with wastewater as early as 2013, even to include maintaining falsified information, records show.
To provide a whiff of context, Bethel Heights operates a so-called STEP treatment system, which partially treats wastewater from its roughly 650 customers. After solids are removed, the system releases the water through a drip irrigation process, which relies on soil to complete the purification process.
A steady drumbeat of news accounts over the years have described how such an obviously ineffective treatment system has created chronic leakage.
A citizen's complaint about wastewater again pooling on his property last fall brought the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality to town. The agency ordered Bethel Heights to clean up its treatment system once and for all and stop leaking wastewater onto surrounding private lands. City and state officials signed an agreement saying the city would repair its treatment system.
The leaking continued, prompting the exasperated agency to file a lawsuit against the city in March. That case was heard the other day by Benton County Circuit Judge John Scott, who ordered the city to take all necessary steps to stop the wastewater leaks and fulfill its obligations made during the fall 2019 agreement with the state.
A July news account by reporter Laurinda Joenks cited state inspectors who reported that wastewater continues collecting above ground, spilling into the yards of the adjacent property owners. A mid-June report from the city shows the water pooling above treatment zones of the city's Lincoln Street plant.
In fairness, it's not as if Bethel Heights has been trying to pooh-pooh its serious sewage problem. But its efforts obviously haven't been sufficient, according to Richard Healey, enforcement manager for the state's Office of Water Quality.
Healey said the agreement between Bethel Heights and the division said the city "must take all necessary measures to prevent wastewater pooling, ponding and surfacing" at the plant. He said the city wouldn't be considered in compliance with its agreement with the state until land at the Lincoln Street treatment plant is dry. That agreement required the city to submit reports and plans to remedy the chronic situation.
Sam Ledbetter, attorney for the city in the lawsuit, is quoted saying Bethel Heights has implemented several measures to stop the pooling since the suit was filed. City Mayor Cynthia Black said those include new drip lines for dispersal of treated wastewater, as well as a new control system for the plants and storage tanks for 126,000 gallons of water.
Bethel Heights also has increased the amount of water it transports for treatment elsewhere. In August the state ordered the city to haul 20,000 gallons a day from its plants. However, Joenks reported, the city has hauled 90,000 gallons a day to an alternative treatment plant in Bentonville as conditions dictated. Ledbetter said weekly reports show the city's sending 720,000 gallons a week to the Northwest Arkansas Conservation Authority's treatment plant, in the process spending $1.5 million on hauling away tainted water and making repairs to its current system.
The judge acknowledged as much at trial, saying: "It does appear the city is on the right path with some things."
I waded knee-deep into this septic situation today in an attempt to remind readers what a gosh-awful expensive and consuming sewage mess any smaller Arkansas city can find itself immersed in for years.
The only light at the end of this long pipe I can see for the city is that the lawsuit and reasons behind this extended mess could become irrelevant in two days when on Tuesday a special election is set to determine whether Bethel Heights will be annexed into Springdale via a petition drive by residents of both communities.
Got a GodNod?
A couple of years back, I published columns about what I call GodNods people have experienced over their lifetimes. Those are the inexplicable events that you knew had to be the result of intervention from a divine level rather than mere coincidence.
Have one to share? Please send it along to my email address.
Now go out into the world and treat everyone you meet exactly like you want them to treat you.
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Mike Masterson is a longtime Arkansas journalist, was editor of three Arkansas dailies and headed the master's journalism program at Ohio State University. Email him at [email protected].