LITTLE ROCK — The budget approved Thursday by Central Arkansas Water commissioners forgoes rate increases next year but includes federally required overhauls to its two treatment facilities that will affect future years’ rates.
Along with a $46.6 million operating budget for 2012, utility officials expect to spend $28.7 million on a variety of capital projects, including new water tanks, replacing old waterlines and complying with 1996 regulations of the Safe Drinking Water Act. About $21 million of the capital projects will be funded with a bond issue expected in January.
About $12 million of the bond money will go toward retrofitting the Jack Wilson and Ozark Point treatment plants to change how raw water is cleansed of bacteria and other harmful materials.
Central Arkansas Water uses 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, averaging will be disallowed and the level of byproducts at each of the utility’s eight testing sites will have to meet the standard. Some sites are too close to failing, utility officials have said in the past.
Complying with the new regulations will require a costly overhaul of mixing chambers, filters and basins. The utility’s director on Thursday recommended switching to chlorine dioxide, a cleaning agent that doesn’t react with naturally occurring materials in the water as regular chlorine does.
The $12 million project doesn’t include $1.5 million in engineering work and future phases.
The 2012 budget reflects a 1.1 percent increase in expenses and a decrease in revenue compared with 2011. The utility expects to bring in $50 million in water sales and other revenue next year, down from $52 million this year. That drop follows a trend of less demand for water, although the utility had its fourth-highest single-day demand this year in August.
Graham Rich, the utility’s director, said Thursday that he doesn’t expect commissioners to consider rates for 2013 and beyond until after the January bond issue and the 2011 budget is closed out.
Arkansas, Pages 17 on 11/11/2011