Fort Smith hopes EPA order helps

City officials see hint of leeway on sewer compliance with directive

FORT SMITH — City officials see in the administration of President Donald Trump a possibility to ease requirements the federal government imposed on Fort Smith to bring its sewer system into compliance with the Clean Water Act.

The executive order Trump signed Feb. 28 ordering the Environmental Protection Agency to redefine “Waters of the United States” could result in eliminating some the requirements the government imposed in a consent decree the city signed with the U.S. Department of Justice and the EPA in 2014, City Director Kevin Settle said Tuesday at the city board meeting.

The order tells the EPA administrator and the assistant secretary of the Army for civil works to review — then rescind or revise — the final rule titled “‘Clean Water Rule: Definition of ‘Waters of the United States’”

dated June 29, 2015.

Redefining the rule, Settle said, could affect improvements the city has been ordered to make relating to sewer overflows during dry weather, for which the city and property owners are subject to violations and fines.

A large portion of the cost of complying with the decree also relates to dry weather overflows, he said.

“When [the redefinition] is completed, some of our consent decree items will no longer be necessary,” Settle said.

Settle also thanked Arkansas’ U.S. Sens. John Boozman and Tom Cotton and U.S. Rep. Steve Womack, all Republicans, for using Fort Smith’s consent decree as an example to the government of the burden the Waters of the United States rule places on Arkansans.

The rule was praised by environmentalists but attacked by farmers, property developers, oil and gas producers and others who complained it would stifle economic growth and infringe on property owners’ rights.

Deputy City Administrator Jeff Dingman said Tuesday city officials also are conscious of the pledges the president made during his campaign to reduce the burden of federal regulations on Americans.

City officials hope the new administration will be willing to extend the deadline for complying with the consent decree, Dingman said.

As it stands, the city will have to cram an estimated $480 million worth of sewer improvements into 12 years. Dingman said the three sewer-rate increases directors levied on residents, the last of which went into effect in January, are sufficient for now to generate enough money to pay for the work.

But at some point, he said, the cost will surpass the money generated by the rates. City officials are arguing with the government that the city should be placed on a schedule that won’t overburden ratepayers and will allow the city to do the improvements at an affordable pace.

Most of the improvements are being paid for with sewer rates, which have been raised incrementally over three years. The typical monthly sewer bill rose from $20 a month in 2014 to $53 a month as of January, according to the city.

Mayor Sandy Sanders and City Administrator Carl Geffken are lobbying Arkansas’ congressional delegation to intercede for Fort Smith with the federal agencies to grant the extension, Dingman said.

As an example of the accelerated pace of work, the federal government requires Fort Smith to inspect its 500 miles of sewer lines and 12,000 manholes every eight years. A memorandum to city directors from Robert Roddy interim utilities director, before the consent decree said the city took 12 years to inspect 75 miles of sewer lines.

City officials also are appealing $ 121,000 in penalties for violating the decree over sewer overflows in 2015, Dingman said. He said the overflows occurred during flooding periods in May and December and during dry weather from pipes clogged with fat, oil and grease.

City directors passed an ordinance in December to regulate the fat, oil and grease customers put into the sewer system.

In its appeal, Dingman said, Fort Smith argues rather than send the $121,000 to the U.S. Treasury Department, it’s better to keep the money in the city where it could be used to pay for further sewer improvements.

Nearly every voting meeting the city directors have approved large amounts of money for work and engineering contracts, purchase of equipment and hiring of employees to keep up with the consent decree schedule and avoid penalties for missing deadlines. So far, Dingman said, the city has avoided schedule-related penalties.

City directors voted Tuesday to pay out nearly $5 million on consent decree projects. The three resolutions passed were to pay RJN Group Inc. almost $1.75 million for engineering services for 2017 sewer system assessments; $2.994 million to Forsgren Inc. for replacement or repair of 23,800 feet of sewer main in a north Fort Smith sewer basin; and $208,496 to Morrison-Shipley Engineering Inc. for inspection services on Forsgren’s work.

Other recent consent expenditures included $269,650 for a sewer line TV inspection truck and more than $131,000 to buy two excavators last month, and $631,650 in December to a contractor completing work on a pump station and equalization tank on Mill Creek.

A five- year capital improvement program city directors approved in October showed the city plans to spend more than $218 million on consent decree tasks from 2017 to 2021.