State water task force to convene
The Water Provider Legislative Task Force formed last month will discuss an interlocal service issue today that state Sen. Alan Clark said is relevant to the city of Hot Springs and Garland County.
The 18-member panel co-chaired by Clark, R-District 13, of Lonsdale, and Rep. Tim Lemons, R-District 43, of Cabot, will convene its second meeting at 1:30 p.m. at the state Capitol. The agenda includes a discussion of a controversy involving the cities of Jacksonville and Sherwood, one Clark said is consistent with issues affecting water service in Garland County.
An area within Jacksonville Water Works’ ser-
vice territory was annexed by Sherwood. The Jacksonville water provider does not extend service outside the city’s corporate limits, but the Arkansas Natural Resources Commission ultimately redrew Central Arkansas Water’s service area to include the territory annexed by Sherwood.
Sherwood is without its own water service and relies on CAW, the provider for a large part of the Little Rock metropolitan area.
Jacksonville challenged the annexation in court, but a Pulaski County circuit judge ruled in favor of the developers who petitioned for the annexation. The state Supreme Court upheld the lower court’s ruling.
Clark said the issue shows intergovernmental service disagreements are not exclusive to Garland County and Hot Springs. The latter’s policy limits water main extensions for new service. Commercial connections to existing mains outside the corporate limits are limited to the city’s planning area.
“The fact is that this is a problem in Jacksonville and Sherwood too,” said Clark, who sponsored the legislation enabling the task force’s formation. “It may be of great interest to Hot Springs, I would think.”
County Judge Rick Davis, who was appointed to the task force by the Association of Arkansas Counties, said he hopes the panel considers if consolidation could deliver service more equitably and efficiently than the localized model that’s divided the state into more than 600 service areas.
“Maybe some good ideas will come out of this, like is regionalization a good deal for the state of Arkansas?” he said. “There’s 650 water systems throughout the state. Is that good or bad? I hope a lot of questions like that get answered.”
The legislative intent listed in Act 1056, the task force’s enabling legislation, said providers should be able to set rates based on where customers reside but should not discriminate against customers in the unincorporated part of their service areas.
It also stated customers should not be made to meet new requirements for receiving water unless similar customers, regardless of location, also have to abide by those conditions.
Davis said rates should be regulated given the monopolies providers have in their respective service areas. The state’s Public Service Commission does not regulate rates providers charge unless the provider is investor owned. Hot Springs’ water utility charges customers outside the corporate limits a 50-percent premium.
“People need to pay fair rates, but they don’t need to be ripped off,” Davis said. “Water and sewer service is a public safety issue. The right to safe water and sanitary living conditions need to be fair and just for everyone.”
The task force comprises six legislators and 12 other members representing a broad range of public and private interests. It’s required to convene at least once every three months before it expires at the start of 2019.
“We wanted it to be as well rounded as possible,” Clark said. “We want to look into how should we be providing water in Arkansas. Are we doing it the best way possible? Can we be doing something better? If so, what would that be?”