Northwest Arkansas' regional wastewater utility has attracted a new customer.
Elm Springs will connect to the Northwest Arkansas Conservation Authority's wastewater treatment plant, according to an agreement in principle reached Thursday. The authority's board and Elm Springs' City Council will have to approve a final agreement. Board Chairman George Spence and Elm Springs Mayor Harold Douthit said they don't anticipate problems getting approval.
Northwest Arkansas Conservation Authority
The Northwest Arkansas Conservation Authority has 10 member cities, each with a representative on the authority’s board. The cities are Bentonville, Bethel Heights, Cave Springs, Centerton, Elm Springs, Highfill, Lowell, Springdale, Rogers and Tontitown.
Source: Staff report
Elm Springs will pay a $580,000 hookup fee to the utility, with a $58,000 payment up front and the remainder payable in installments over 10 years. The board accepted a motion by Bentonville Mayor Bob McCaslin to be flexible in the amount and timing of payments.
Whether Elm Springs pays regular monthly installments in exactly the same amount doesn't matter so long as it remains current at the end of each year, McCaslin said and board members unanimously agreed.
Elm Springs won't incur any debt to pay for the project, Douthit said during Thursday's meeting. In later interviews, he said the project to install 15,000 feet of line -- almost 3 miles -- to the plant will be "flirting with a million dollars."
"We can pay for this with the money we have already unless I run into 2 miles of solid rock," he said.
Elm Springs city crews will do the work to save money, Douthit said. The city owns easements along most of the pipe's route, he said.
The authority has 10 Northwest Arkansas cities on its board and only two paying customers: Bentonville and Tontitown. All member cities paid a share to help set up the authority, acquire the land for the plant and provided some taxpayer money until the authority was far enough along to qualify to issue bonds, but the construction costs of the plant, lines to it and treatment costs are paid by cities using the plant.
There never was a definite timetable for other cities to send wastewater to the plant for treatment, but hookups were slower coming than originally expected because of the recession that began in 2008, Spence said Friday. That recession hit the housing market hardest, he said.
The treatment plant, near Cave Springs, can treat 3.6 million gallons per day, figures show. The plant averages about 2.4 million gallons a day. Elm Springs will add 38,000 gallons a day, Douthit told the board.
The key factor in choosing the authority was cost, Douthit said. The city considered linking with the wastewater systems of either Springdale or Tontitown, but those options offered limited capacity to expand. The regional plant was the more cost-effective, long-term solution offering almost unlimited expansion, he said.
"Elm Springs has 183 lots approved for building a house right now," the mayor said. "We had 39 houses built last year and I expect more than 50 this year, maybe as many as 75."
The plant is designed to expand to 5.4 million gallons a day, Spence said. That would require a major investment and there are no immediate plans to do that, he said.
Besides drafting an agreement and drawing up detailed plans, pumps and other equipment need to be ordered, Douthit said. He hopes to have the project finished by fall, the mayor said.
The project can be done without a wastewater rate increase, the mayor said. The city hasn't had an increase since 2001. Customers may see a rate increase soon, but the cause will not be the connection project, Douthit said.
Spence said once Elm Springs joins the system, its cost of treatment will be determined by its share of the plant's total treatment costs each month. That will vary, he said, but will be less than the treatment cost for the existing Elm Springs plant because of economies of scale.
NW News on 04/22/2017