GENTRY -- A lack of coordination between federal agencies approving waste-water projects is causing problems for developing portions of western Benton County, the area's mayors told Sen. John Boozman, R-Ark., on Wednesday.
The biggest example cited was a wastewater treatment project to link Centerton and Decatur.
"We were issued a permit and borrowed $10 million for a project and were going ahead with it when we got a letter from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service saying they never had a chance to review it and to halt," Frank Holzkamper, public utilities director for Centerton, told Boozman.
Boozman said he would look into the matter.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers confirmed Wednesday afternoon there is a snag in the project's approval. The delay was caused by communication problems not a lack of cooperation between the corps and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, corps spokesmen said.
"We are supposed to approve permits based on the latest information provided to us by the Fish and Wildlife Service, and we found out that the information we used was not the latest that was available," said Cynthia Blansett, an environmental specialist with the corps who oversees the Centerton project. "That information has been provided to us, and we're working with Fish and Wildlife and the city to get this worked out."
Laurie Driver, spokesman for the corps' state headquarters in Little Rock, agreed.
"This is a communications glitch that has been resolved," she said.
Blansett also said the latest information provided by Fish and Wildlife contains no obvious, major new factors that would hold up or significantly delay the Centerton project.
Still, Centerton faces inefficiencies and associated expenses to finish the project on schedule, Holzkamper said. For instance, work is proceeding first on parts of the project not in environmentally sensitive areas, instead of following an efficient work schedule, he said.
Boozman, of Rogers, met with mayors of Centerton, Siloam Springs, Gentry, Gravette and other cities along Arkansas 59 in the western part of the county. The lunch meeting at the Wooden Spoon restaurant in Gentry lasted more than an hour, with wastewater issues taking up much of that time.
Much of western Benton County sits on or along a recharge area where rainwater trickles down into an underground environment. An endangered species of gray bats and a threatened species of fish, among other life, inhabit that environment. This brings the requirement for Fish and Wildlife approval of wastewater treatment plants and related projects.
In other issues, the mayors attending the meeting said they're expecting to grow and any conflicts that expansion causes between them and the larger cities to the east can be amicably managed, but the smaller cities will have to support each other.
"On the west side, we might be able to deal with Bentonville, Springdale and Rogers as a group," said Centerton Mayor Bill Edwards. "Separately, we can't."
The smaller towns have residential development already, said Cave Springs Mayor Travis Lee. Business development will follow, he said. In the meantime, smaller towns are squeezed by demands for more and more city services for residents without a developed business tax base to support those services.
Boozman said his office would help the cities look for grants to provide such services.
Doug Thompson can be reached by email at dthompson@nwadg.com.
A Section on 04/02/2015