Bethel Heights residents deliver second set of petitions for annexation vote

City Clerk Denise Pearce flips through a stack of petitions Friday at Springdale City Hall. A group has gathered petitions to get Bethel Heights annexed into Springdale because Bethel Heights can't solve its sewer issue. They turned in petitions to Pearce. Go to nwaonline.com/200307Daily/ for today's photo gallery. (NWA Democrat-Gazette/Charlie Kaijo)
City Clerk Denise Pearce flips through a stack of petitions Friday at Springdale City Hall. A group has gathered petitions to get Bethel Heights annexed into Springdale because Bethel Heights can't solve its sewer issue. They turned in petitions to Pearce. Go to nwaonline.com/200307Daily/ for today's photo gallery. (NWA Democrat-Gazette/Charlie Kaijo)

BETHEL HEIGHTS -- Residents of Bethel Heights on Monday morning delivered petitions to city hall calling for the consolidation of their city into Springdale.

The group, Concerned Citizens for Better Government for Bethel Heights, started the annexation drive in August after a state agency fined the city $122,000 for repeated violations at its wastewater treatment plants. The city's wastewater treatment system continually allows the partially treated sewage to surface and pool on the ground at the treatment site.

The citizens' group delivered another stack of petitions Friday to Springdale City Clerk Denise Pearce. A majority of voters in both cities must approve the annexation for it to occur.

Bethel Heights Mayor Cynthia Black on Monday took the petitions, which included more than 100 signatures, said Joe Brooks, a leader of the group.

"The citizens have done their job; now it's turned over to the authorities," Brooks said.

The Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality suspended 80% of the fines in November when the city agreed to find another way to dispose of its wastewater, both short-term and long-term, and close its current treatment plants.

Joetta Bowen, who helped deliver petitions and lives on Lincoln Street next door to one of the city's treatment plants, said wastewater floods her backyard every day and more so on weekends.

"I know Springdale wouldn't do everything we like, but if they could get this sewer cleaned up from our yard that would be a blessing," she said.

The city agreed to haul away excess wastewater from its plants for treatment. Records show the Northwest Arkansas Conservation Authority's wastewater treatment plant in south Bentonville took about 61,700 gallons of wastewater a day from Bethel Heights in February.

Twelve of those truckloads were carried by White River Environmental Services, one of the companies hired by Bethel Heights to remove the wastewater.

White River Environmental on Feb. 10 entered into its own agreement with the state for dumping wastewater from the city on land without a permit. The state fined the company $3,200 for its actions, with $1,600 suspended when the consent agreement was signed in February.

White River illegally applied 153,000 gallons of Bethel Heights' wastewater from Aug. 12 to Sept. 3, ADEQ said. The land east of Springdale is owned by Harold Parsons and is in the White River watershed.

White River officials immediately ceased the land application Sept. 4 after state notification, the state said.

David Hufford, one of the company's owners, declined comment Monday.

White River Environmental was hauling up to 34,000 gallons a day on weekends to the P Street Waste Water Treatment Plant in Fort Smith, Fort Smith records show. The conservation authority's plant is closed on weekends.

Fort Smith City Administrator Carl Geffken said Friday the city's top officials didn't know the plant was receiving wastewater from Bethel Heights. They said the plant is permitted to receive wastewater from its city's households, but not municipal waste from another city.

Employees at the the plant had communicated with Bethel Heights, and ADEQ was aware, Geffken said.

Fort Smith operates under its own 2015 agreement order with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the federal Department of Justice and the state of Arkansas. The city agreed to make an estimated $480 million in repairs and upgrades to its wastewater system over the course of 12 years to clear up chronic violations of the federal Clean Water Act.

"But the ADEQ said it was OK because we were being good neighbors," Geffken said of accepting Bethel Heights' waste.

Geffken said Fort Smith will charge Bethel Heights the same rate for treatment it charges its own sewer customers -- $8.45 per centum cubic foot.

The city also will charge for the wastewater received since Jan. 4, with a 10% surcharge as a late fee. Fort Smith officials will issue an invoice of $6,351 to White River for disposal of 511,100 gallons of partially treated wastewater, Geffken said.

Recent progress reports submitted from Bethel Heights to the state show Bethel Heights' wastewater also has been trucked to treatment systems in Huntsville and Bella Vista on weekends. Huntsville recorded 72,000 gallons from Friday to Sunday, said Sean Davis, executive director.

Frankie Knight, general manager of the Bella Vista plant, said Bethel Heights delivered 15,000 gallons, but Knight is going to refuse future deliveries.

"I don't want that to mess up my plant," he said. "There was a lot of sludge in it. I don't need any more sludge."

NW News on 03/10/2020

Story originally published at 1:00 a.m.

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