City board decides to phase in septic tank disposal fee
The 5 cent per-gallon disposal fee the city proposed for septic tank haulers using the Davidson Drive wastewater treatment plant will be phased in over two years.
A septic tank industry representative requested the fee be implemented incrementally, telling the Hot Springs Board of Directors last week he was unaware of the fee proposal until reading about it in The Sentinel-Record.
“I didn’t know any of this was going on,” Darius Melton, a member of the Arkansas Onsite Wastewater Association Board of Directors and president of 2M Pumping Service, told the board. “A 5 cent- a- gallon increase at this time, in my opinion, is a little strong.”
The ordinance enabling the new cost structure called for the fee to be fully implemented next year. The city board adopted an amendment phasing in the fee over two years, charging 3 cents per gallon next year and an additional 2 cents in 2022.
The city currently charges a
$20 fee to discharge wastewater at the plant. According to information presented to the board, the fee amounted to a 1 cent per-gallon charge based on the more than 3.2 million gallons haulers discharged from January
2019 to August and $35,240 in disposal fees the city collected over that time.
The city said the new fee structure would have collected $174,824 and is projected to collect $ 147,747 annually. The flat $20 fee collects less than
$30,000 a year.
“The current fee of $20 per load does not offset the (operation and maintenance) cost associated with the service and is inherently unfair to smaller operators,” Utilities Director Monty Ledbetter said in a letter
to the board.
Melton said higher operating costs from the 5-cent fee, which will be applied to the per-gallon hauling capacity of a truck and not the actual volume of waste being discharged, will be passed onto septic tank customers.
“My truck is a 3,400-gallon truck,” Melton said. “If you’re going to charge me every time I come in, whether it’s full or not, I’m going to be paying the city $170. It’s a $50 per customer increase, and I’m not real sure that’s going to cover it.
“I’m not against the increase, but let’s do it in a gradual increase. That way we’re not hitting the public so hard. When we do a lot of pumping in the rain season, we do finance some pumping because it’s a hardship on people. I’m opposed to the 5 cents all at one time.”
The city said it’s one of the few municipalities in the state that accepts waste from septic tank haulers. According to information presented to the board, Bryant, El Dorado, Jonesboro, Malvern, North Little Rock, Paragould, Pine Bluff and Van Buren’s wastewater plants do not accept waste from septic tank haulers.
“We understand the issues Mr. Melton spoke of,” City Manager Bill Burrough told the board, explaining that the disposal fee hasn’t been increased in 20 years. “We are one of the only waste facilities in the area that will accept the pump trunks. Staff would recommend we do (5 cents) over a course of two years.”
The ordinance also allows the city to charge an annual $75 permit fee for each truck that discharges waste at the Davidson Drive plant. The city said it would inspect each vehicle/tank before issuing a permit.
The city’s National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit allows it to discharge wastewater treated at the Davidson Drive plant into upper Lake Catherine.