Water and Sewer Commission to finalize details on project

EL DORADO — The El Dorado Water Utilities is one step closer to developing a long-range plan to evaluate and upgrade its wastewater infrastructure.

The El Dorado Water and Sewer Commission agreed Wednesday to move forward with negotiations in a proposed contract with Burns and McDonnell engineering firm to handle the project.

Commissioners authorized Mark Smith, general manager of the El Dorado Water Utilities, to get with EWU attorney Brian Ratcliff and Burns and McDonnell to hammer out the final details of the $143,730 contract proposal.

Smith explained with the wastewater master plan would serve as a companion piece to a plan that Burns and McDonnell completed in 2012 for EWU water operations.

He said a long-range plan for the wastewater side would serve a two-fold purpose: pinpoint the “weakest links” in the EWU’s sewer infrastructure and address how best upgrade or replace the two aging wastewater treatment plants, both of which are nearly 40 years old.

Smith said the EWU had budgeted for the project this year.

Recent issues with the alum/chemical tanks at the north and south wastewater treatment plants further underscored the importance of a master plan, Smith told commissioners.

Last month, John Peppers, EWU treatment superintendent, reported that the alum tank at the north WWTP had failed and had been replaced.

Smith said Wednesday that the chemical tank at the south treatment plant was in a similar condition, and the EWU had planned to address the issue, but the time came sooner than expected.

Peppers said the top of the tank had begin de-elaminating and there were weak spots where the tank had previously been repaired for leaks.

Peppers said a new tank is expected to be delivered next Tuesday for the south plant, and Glenn Mechanical will demolish and remove the existing tank.

“I’m a little unclear on the past history of what we’ve looked at on a wastewater plan,” Commissioner Brett Garrett said earlier in the meeting.

“We haven’t done anything in a long time. I can’t think of any long-range wastewater plan that we’ve done, and I came on in ‘02 or ‘03,” Commission chairman Pete Parks said.

Garrett asked if a study of the system had been previously performed, and Parks said cost analyses for upgrades to the WWTPS were completed years ago as discussions, debates and court cases were raging about the Ouachita River multi-user wastewater pipeline project.

The EWU joined with three local industries — El Dorado Chemical, Lion Oil, and Great Lakes Solutions — to build the river pipeline in order to meet increasingly strict environmental discharge limits for smaller tributaries, into which the EWU and industries had been discharging treated wastewater.

The river line is owned and operated by the EWU, and the industry partners pay utilities to use the line.

Proponents of the river project agreed that it was a cheaper option than upgrading the WWTPs.

Parks said Wednesday that cost analyses included a figure of $80 million ($40 million per plant) to upgrade the WWTPs with the most recent technology and to accommodate discharge limits at the time.

Such a cost would have meant a tremendous rate increase for EWU customers, water and sewer commissioners said then.

Commissioners and the EWU had also said the WWTPs would need to be upgraded at some point.

Parks said the needed upgrades should cost less now because the EWU does not treat wastewater at the same level as was necessary prior to the construction of the river pipeline.

Peppers said the pipeline will be shut down for several hours next Tuesday as divers from Kentucky conduct the annual diffuser inspection.

He said the process should take about half a day, and the industry partners have been notified about the matter.

Smith said the work that will be performed by Burns and McDonnell to help develop the master plan will include placing monitors in the pipes of the wastewater infrastructure.

Parks inquired about EWU’s efforts to smoke pipes this summer to test for problems, and he asked Smith if the utility had planned to smoke in areas where Burns and McDonnell will be installing monitors.

Smith said the EWU will share information with Burns and McDonnell if necessary. He also said the EWU had scouted out areas to smoke “where we felt we had problems.”

Smith and Kenneth Robertson, EWU wastewater collection foreman, said crews are smoking in the northwest portion of town and have discovered a few service line leaks in the County Club Terrace neighborhood.

Robertson said crews had also encountered issues with sewer clean-outs, typically the access point for cleaning and maintenance of a wastewater line, particularly at apartment complexes.

Smith said the EWU is going to replace clean-out caps for applicable lines at residential locations and plans to ask property owners to purchase the caps at commercial locations, including apartment complexes.

“We haven’t found the big enchilada yet. As far as that big, major leak, we haven’t found it, but it’s still very early in the process,” Smith said.