Valley View Sewer System Considering Options

The manager of Valley View’s sewer system is looking at options on what to do with the residents’ wastewater and two ideas are to connect either to Farmington or Prairie Grove wastewater treatment systems.

Jerry Kopke, appointed as receiver by Washington County Circuit Court to oversee the system, recently mailed letters to Farmington Mayor Ernie Penn, Prairie Grove Mayor Sonny Hudson and Fayetteville city officials asking to open a dialogue about the possibility of connecting to either sewer treatment system.

The community sewer system is owned by Washington County Property Owners District #5 and serves about 500 homes in Valley View and nearby subdivisions. Some of these houses are in Prairie Grove and some in Farmington.

The system’s state environmental permit expired at the first of the year, leaving the improvement district without the means to take care of its sewer. As originally designed, sewage comes into a holding lagoon next to a small treatment system. It was to be treated, pumped to two ponds on the Valley View Golf Course and then used to water the greens.

That is not an option without a valid permit to land-apply the treated effluent.

For now, the improvement district is hauling wastewater to Prairie Grove’s sewer treatment plant. Since May, Prairie Grove has treated more than 2.4 million gallons of sewage at a cost of $15,000 to the improvement district, according to Larry Oelrich, director of public works and administrative services.

Prairie Grove City Coun- cil last week gave its OK for Hudson to meet with Kopke and see where the discussion leads.

Hudson said he did not want to get involved in meetings and later learn the council was not interested in pursuing it at all. He emphasized he would make “no deals” during the discussions.

Oelrich told council members he saw some merit in allowing Valley View to connect to Prairie Grove because it would open up the other side of the Illinois River for development.

Oelrich said the improvement district would be responsible for its costs, not Prairie Grove, and also said he thought Prairie Grove should charge the district for using up some of its capacity.

After the council voted to allow city officials to enter into discussions, Hudson’s response was, “OK, that will be fun.”

Penn on Thursday also said he was willing to meet with Kopke but will not commit to anything.

“If I have a discussion on it, I’ll report that to the city council,” Penn said.

The questions for Farmington are the costs, who will pay the costs and how would that affect future capacity for Farmington growth.

“I’ll be glad to attend and see what everyone has to say but I don’t want to put any tax burden on our existing taxpayers,” Penn said.

Last week, Kopke said a meeting is the first step and acknowledged it would be a long drawn-out, expensive process to hook on to either system.

Related to all of this is a dispute in Washington County Circuit Court over the two ponds on the Valley View Golf Course near the clubhouse.

Kopke, who is representing Communities Unlimited as receiver, contends the ponds are part of the improvement district’s sewer treatment system. Valley View Golf argues the ponds are golf course property and the improvement district does not have access to the ponds.

As far as he is concerned, Kopke said, the two ponds are no longer an option as a way to use treated wastewater.

According to Kopke, attorneys for Valley View Golf Course have proposed charging the district $6.19 per 1,000 gallons to take the treated wastewater. The golf course also wants to reserve the right on a daily basis whether it would accept the treated effluent and the improvement district would be responsible for any fees and responsible for any problems.

“We were offered virtually no benefits,” Kopke said. “There wasn’t much in it for us.”

A third option being considered is to treat the sewage and discharge into a nearby creek. Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality has asked Kopke to make a study as to whether the flow from this stream goes underground. If it does, the treatment would be much more stringent and more costly to install.

“Our responsibility is to consider all viable alternatives and find the best longterm option for the system,” he said.

While Kopke continues to consider options, he said the district is still taking care of business, has no immediate plans to raise sewer rates and most importantly, he said, has not had any sewer overflows.