State fines city, requests order to halt sewer woes
BENTONVILLE — The Arkansas Division of Environmental Quality on Wednesday imposed suspended fines against the city of Bethel Heights over its wastewater-treatment plant. A complaint filed in Benton County Circuit Court asks for $81,200 in fines, plus attorney fees, from the city.
The state’s complaint also seeks a court order for Bethel Heights to take all necessary steps to stop wastewater from pooling on the surface of the city’s treatment site.
Bethel Heights officials in October agreed to follow orders of operation set by the state, including hauling away excess wastewater for treatment at another licensed facility if wastewater continued surfacing at the city’s treatment site, the lawsuit says.
In return, the Division of Environmental Quality agreed to drop $81,200 from a $101,200 fine it imposed in October over previous violations, court records show.
The city paid $20,000 in fines on Dec. 26. Tuesday’s complaint asks for immediate payment of the dropped fines.
“The city is extremely disappointed that DEQ chose to take this action,” Robert Rhoads, an attorney representing Bethel Heights, said in an email. “Filing suit alleging Bethel Heights is not in compliance with its agreement under the [Consent Agreement Order] is simply the wrong approach.”
He said the city has worked diligently to address the problems with its wastewater-treatment system and has been in constant communication with state officials in an “effort to respond to DEQ’s constantly imposing more and more requirements on the city.”
Jacob Harper, a spokesman for the Division of Environmental Quality, said the agency wouldn’t comment on a pending legal matter.
The state agency has investigated problems at Bethel Heights’ sewer plants for nearly a year after a complaint last April by Lawrence Bowen, who lives next-door to one of two city treatment plants. Bowen reported untreated wastewater spilling into his yard. The state division ordered the city to close its plants and find another way to treat its wastewater.
Rhoads said the city has met its obligation under the October agreement. He said the city is working to increase the amount of wastewater hauled and increase on-site storage capacity of wastewater. City officials are working to improve the plant’s equipment, access a portable wastewater treatment system and join other area wastewater treatment systems.
“Some of the efforts to address this take time, as DEQ itself has acknowledged,” Rhoads said. “We continue to work on both short-term and long-term solutions,” he said.
Reports from the city and inspections by the state since that agreement show continued pooling of wastewater at the site, according to the complaint.
“On December 13, 2019, DEQ informed the City of Bethel Heights by letter that ‘DEQ has information and documentation showing that pooling and surfacing have continued to occur in spite of corrective actions that are currently being taken by Bethel Heights,’” the complaint says. A copy of the letter was filed along with the complaint.
The letter also reads, “an analysis of the current rates of wastewater haul off indicates that Bethel Heights is hauling off less wastewater than the facility plan recommends.”
Arkansas Division of Environmental Quality officials in August ordered Bethel Heights to truck 25% of its treated wastewater, or about 20,000 gallons a day, from its plants for disposal. In September, the division returned to the city the decision of how much water to truck.
Bethel Heights operates a STEP system, which partially treats wastewater from its roughly 650 customers. After removal of solids, the system releases partially treated water underground in a drip irrigation system, relying on the land to complete the purification process. Any pooling of wastewater above ground is a violation of the city’s 2015 permit from the state, the complaint says.
“The city of Bethel Heights has reported surfacing [of wastewater] at defendant’s facility every day from November 13, 2019 to February 23, 2020,” the complaint says.
Testing of that groundwater, at times, has revealed high levels of fecal coliform and E. coli higher than standard testing could measure.
The Division of Environmental Quality has required several times since August that Bethel Heights officials determine an alternate plan for treatment of the city’s wastewater.
The state on Jan. 30 suspended for six years the operator’s license of Rick Sayre, the wastewater treatment plant operator for Bethel Heights. The state said the suspension came after a review of city records and test results.
State officials said they found evidence of falsification of 31 monthly reports between January 2016 and July 2019. Sayre failed to report 239 instances of the plant not operating within the requirements of its license, according to the state.