LITTLE ROCK — Central Arkansas Water commissioners Thursday approved issuing up to $18.15 million in bonds early next month to help pay for upgrades to the utility’s treatment plants and to buy property in the Lake Maumelle watershed.
The bond sale will raise about $14 million for the overhaul of the utility’s two treatment plants and about $2.6 million for the land purchase.
Retrofitting the Jack Wilson and Ozark Point treatment plants is required to meet federal standards that will be in effect in 2014.
Central Arkansas Wateruses chlorine to treat about 60 million gallons of water a day. Chlorine can react with naturally occurring materials in the water to form byproducts such as trihalomethanes and haloacetic acids.
Those byproducts - allowed at 80 parts per billion and 60 parts per billion, respectively - can lead to health problems if consumed in excess over many years, according to the federal Environmental Protection Agency.
Central Arkansas’ water meets current federal standards, which allow utilities to report averages of byproduct levels found at testing sites. But by 2014, the level of byproducts at each of the utility’s eight testing sites will have to stand on its own, and utility officials have said some sites are too close to failing.
Some of the bond will also go toward paying back the Trust for Public Land, a nonprofit that bought 488 acres north of Lake Maumelle earlier this year on behalf of the utility. The national trust helps groups across the country acquire property for conservation.
Central Arkansas Water will use proceeds from a monthly 45-cent watershed fee that customers pay to pay off the bonds, which will mature 20 years after they’re issued.
Arkansas, Pages 14 on 12/09/2011