$250,000 targets Bethel Heights sewage problem

Springdale has a 45-day plan

SPRINGDALE — Forty-five days and $250,000.

That’s what Heath Ward, executive director of Springdale Water Utilities, expects it will take to turn off the wastewater treatment system that for years has plagued residents of Bethel Heights.

Ward spoke Wednesday at the monthly meeting of the Springdale Water and Sewer Commission, which approved the $250,000 to fix the system, which includes two treatment facilities.

The plan includes a quick, temporary fix with a heavy-duty plastic, 8-inch pipe above ground that will take wastewater to a pipeline owned by the Springdale utility, Ward said. The wastewater will never enter Bethel Heights’ system, but instead be routed to the Springdale Waste Water Treatment Facility on Silent Grove Road near J.B. Hunt Park.

Springdale’s main line — laying only a few thousand feet from the Bethel Heights system — already carries wastewater from Lowell. The Springdale utility serves Lowell with water and sewer service.

Department engineers also considered routing the wastewater through the bigger city so as not to overload Springdale’s system, said Rick Pulvirenti, chief engineer and operating officer for the utility. The Springdale department said 663 residential customers, 64 commercial customers and seven other minor customers will join the system from Bethel Heights.

“We’re prepared to take on the challenge, and we said that all along the way,” Ward said.

Long-term, Springdale will install permanent pipelines and related equipment underground. That project could cost about $1.5 million and become part of the commission’s 20-year plan, Ward said.

Voters in Springdale and Bethel Heights on Aug. 11 approved annexation of the smaller community. Residents of both cities started the campaign for annexation in August 2019 to resolve Bethel Heights’ wastewater problems.

The Arkansas Division of Environmental Quality had the two Bethel Heights plants and the city’s former operator under investigation since May 2019. In October, the city was ordered to shut down the system and find another way to treat its wastewater.

The annexation takes effect at 6 p.m. today when the Benton County Election Commission meets to certify the votes there. Washington County will certify its results during a noon meeting today.

Then all of Bethel Heights’ assets — plus the problems at the city’s two treatment plants — become the property of Springdale.

“My idea is to get the residents hooked to the Springdale system, then turn off the plant and let those fields dry out,” Ward said.

The department took steps to make this happen even before the vote — for example, receiving bids on the above-ground pipe.

“But a lot of things remain unseen and unknown,” Ward said.

“In the meantime, we’re still hauling,” he said.

Crews from White River Environmental Systems continue to pump wastewater from the Bethel Heights system and carry it to the Springdale treatment plant. Ward contracted with the company when it was released from its Bethel Heights contract the morning after the annexation election.

Springdale is hauling about 90,000 gallons of wastewater from Bethel Heights per day. That is more than Bethel Heights hauled and more than the Environmental Quality Division ordered, Ward said.

In August 2019, the state told Bethel Heights it must haul for treatment elsewhere 25% of its daily input of 80,000 gallons of wastewater — or no less than 20,000 gallons a day — until wastewater stopped surfacing on the ground. The state also fined the city $20,000 for its mismanagement of the system.

During the week of July 13-19, the city trucked an average of 87,000 gallons of wastewater to the Northwest Arkansas Conservation Authority’s plant in Bentonville, costing $54,834, according to invoices the city supplied to the state.

Cost estimates for Springdale’s hauling weren’t available.

Garry King, who will take over as manager of the former Bethel Heights system, said he wants to empty the system today, leaving no sewage to overflow onto neighboring yards during the weekend.

The utility hired King, a licensed operator for STEP systems, to run the Bethel Heights treatment system until it’s decommissioned. King worked for Bethel Heights for five months. He resigned with a letter to the state saying he had to do so “to protect his license and integrity.”

Springdale officials received a cursory tour of the Bethel Heights plants.

“We found a lot of things in various states of disrepair,” Ward said. “We didn’t find many things in repair. But some of the pumps were working.”

He said the treatment plant on Oak Street wasn’t working at all.

“They didn’t know how to operate it, but it could relieve the main plant,” Ward said. “We will get it working.”

However, Springdale’s first job is to build fences to secure the plants on Lincoln Street and Oak Street, Ward said, as the fields and holding tanks pose a high risk.

“A child or someone not paying attention could easily fall into one of the pits,” he said.

Bethel Heights operated a STEP system to treat its sanitary wastewater. Each customer has a small septic tank to hold sewage and pump it to one of the plants. The plant would partially treat the water, then release it to an irrigation system. These systems were supposed to slowly release the water into the ground, letting the natural features of the ground continue the treatment.

Ward said residential customers will keep using those septic tanks for now.