Fort Smith buys time to repair sewer system
EPA, state agency grant 5-year extension
FORT SMITH — Fort Smith can have more time to implement extensive sewer improvements mandated by the state and federal governments.
On Thursday evening, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality agreed that the city has demonstrated that its sewer improvement program will be “inordinately expensive” and qualified for five more years of implementation time on top of the 12 already set forth.
They also agreed to grant more flexibility with certain interim deadlines that will allow the city to extend expensive system improvements over the entirety of the remaining schedule.
“This [is] a very favorable development for which the city is very appreciative to the agencies,” the city said Friday evening. “We believe the agencies now understand that despite the city’s herculean efforts to comply — including an unprecedented (nationally) rate increase of 167 percent between 2015 and 2017, we simply can’t afford to modernize our entire sewer system in just 12 years.”
Fort Smith officials signed a consent decree in 2015 with the EPA, the Department of Justice and the state agreeing to make an estimated $480 million in repairs and upgrades to the wastewater system over the course of 12 years to clear up chronic violations of the federal Clean Water Act. To aid in fulfilling
the requirements of the consent decree, the city raised its sewer rates by 167% from 2015 to 2017.
On Friday evening, City Administrator Carl Geffken said he was pleased with the additional time the city has received. He said the extension comes with conditions, although he was unable to elaborate much further.
“But we will be working with the state Environmental Quality Department] and the Department of Justice and the Arkansas attorney general and the United States Environmental Protection Agency to follow what they have approved for us to do, and to modify our plans to work on the consent decree and to update our costs and continue our discussions with them,” Geffken said.
Geffken previously told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette that Fort Smith has been working in good faith on the consent decree, having spent at least $135 million on fulfilling the requirements over the past five years.
“The next thing we’ll need to do is to incorporate … what’s been authorized and approved into the plans and to moderate to see how our costs are changed, and then work with those oversights and show them the results of that,” Geffken said.
Although the city said the extension is helpful, it expects that the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on its revenue will require additional time to comply with the Clean Water Act. The city will discuss this with the agencies in the near future.
After the city revises the program implementation schedule and updates the affordability analyses, it will work to assess the pandemic’s impact to determine what further time is necessary. The city will discuss this with the agencies.
“The ultimate decision about program implementation time will determine the size of future rate increases,” according to the city’s announcement.
City directors told the Democrat-Gazette on Friday evening they were pleased that Fort Smith has been given more time to work on the project.
City Director Lavon Morton described the extension as “really important.”
“This is a great step forward for the city, but we will not stop working to continue to try to keep the burden on the citizens at a level they can afford,” Morton said.
City Director Neal Martin wrote in an email that Fort Smith residents have endured “a tremendous burden” with sewer rates being raised so much, and the extension is some welcome relief.
”This is a great starting point and we look forward to working with the EPA/ADEQ more in the future to help our citizens,” Martin wrote.
City Director Kevin Settle also expressed happiness.
“This extension will be very beneficial to the city and citizens of Fort Smith,” Settle wrote in an email. “It [will] give us some more time, which will ultimately make it more feasible for us to [comply] with this consent decree. I am very grateful for the work that Sens. [John] Boozman and [Tom] Cotton and Congressman [Steve] Womack [have] done to assist us with this extension.”
In contrast, City Director George Catsavis wrote in an email that although the extension is some relief, he is not sure it will be enough to put off another sewer rate increase.
“Many variables in play here,” Catsavis wrote. “The board needs to study this and see how much it might help financially short term and long term and try to understand our position with future compliance.”
Although the city said the extension is helpful, it expects that the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on its revenue will require additional time to comply with the Clean Water Act. The city will discuss this with the agencies in the near future.