Fort Smith reviews $608 million plan for water, wastewater projects

FORT SMITH — The city outlined multiple 10-year plans for a variety of improvement to its water and wastewater system, including those pertaining to its consent decree.

The Board of Directors was presented three capital improvement plans for 2021 through 2030 during its study session Tuesday. They consisted of plans for water systems maintenance and improvements, as well as both consent decree and non-consent decree wastewater systems maintenance and improvement. Ultimately, the board moved to place the plans, as well as others it reviewed earlier this month, on the agenda for its Nov. 10 meeting.

Officials signed a consent decree in 2015 with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Justice and the state. The city agreed to an estimated $480 million to repair and upgrade its wastewater system over 12 years to clear up chronic violations of the federal Clean Water Act.

The city raised its sewer rates 167% from 2015-17 to help fulfill the requirements of the decree.

Fort Smith announced May 8 the EPA and ADEQ agreed the city demonstrated its sewer program will be “inordinately expensive” and granted five more to do the work. They also granted more flexibility with certain deadlines, allowing the city to extend expensive system improvements over the entirety of the schedule.

City Utility Director Lance McAvoy wrote in a memo although the utility department would be presenting 10-year capital improvement plans, it would only be seeking funding approval for the projects for 2021. Projects approved by the board for that year and which may not have money available to implement them will be rescheduled to 2022 accordingly.

“Due to covid-19, many of the 2020 CIP projects were either not started or slowed down to reduce the possible financial impact on the city by reduced revenue and to ensure the financial stability of the Department during the crisis,” McAvoy wrote. “Some projects were continued due to the immediate need and critical impact they have on the city as a whole (an example would be the 2019 Flood Recovery Project).”

The total for the wastewater improvement plan is $246,121,100, with $22,090,100 being the estimate for 2021, according to McAvoy. The plan is based on required projects, although it spreads several projects over the span of multiple years and reschedules some to be more financially feasible. It has been submitted to the Department of Justice, the EPA and the Arkansas Attorney General for consideration as well.

“The city is still working to address the multiple challenges we face in the overall compliance and financing of the consent decree,” McAvoy wrote.

This capital improvement plan outlines 19 projects for 2021, although paying for some of them span multiple years. The estimated costs for the projects for the year vary greatly, with the lowest being $40,000 to design repairs to correct wastewater pipe issues in Basin MC07 and the most expensive being $4.5 million to correct wastewater pipe issues in Basin S004, S003, S008, S009, P007 and FL01. The latter project isn’t yet funded.

As for the non- consent decree wastewater capital improvement plan, McAvoy said the 10-year total is $145,038,000. However, the plan will be updated after a replacement study, design and phasing plan for the Massard Treatment Plant are completed, which is to happen in December. This is because they will allow the city to better understand how much it will cost and how long it will take to expand, update, and modernize the plant.

“One item that has already come out of the phasing study is reflected in past CIPs having the complete replacement of the plant in a three to four-year period,” McAvoy said. “We are now setting CIP needs based on certain trigger events, thus the overall cost may be spread out over a greater time period.”

The total for the plan for 2021 is estimated at $25,350,000, McAvoy said.

McAvoy said the 10-year total for the water systems maintenance and improvements is $217,360,000. The total for 2021 is estimated at $15,042,000.

The overall 10-year total of the three capital improvement plans from the Utility Department is $608,519,100, according to McAvoy.

City Administrator Carl Geffken said the plans are going to be relatively fluid. This is especially the case with the consent decree plan, as the city has been “working diligently” with the federal Department of Justice and EPA, in addition to state and local representatives.

“So, this is a presentation on what we think needs to be done,” he said, adding “hopefully, there are changes coming up, but we don’t know that yet — hence the reason why the full consent decree has been budgeted,” Geffken said.

He said “if there’s less there, then there’s money available for other things.”

“There are a lot of moving parts at this point, but considering that, three years ago, we never did present a capital improvement plan, we’ve come a long way, and there’s still revisions that can be made. But at this point, we’re at the initial phase of finalizing … our discussions and work that we’ve been doing with the Department of Justice and EPA. We’ve had a very good and frank relationship with them, and we hope that it will come out successful.”