Utility OK’d to buy 3 watershed tracts
The board of commissioners of the regional utility Central Arkansas Water has signed off on the purchase of three pieces of property in the Lake Maumelle watershed that together comprise around 217 acres.
The utility is planning to prepare a resolution authorizing the purchase of an additional 130-acre property by next month, an official said recently.
The lake is a principal water source for metro Little Rock and serves as one of two surface-water sources for Central Arkansas Water, along with Lake Winona.
Commissioners approved three resolutions Thursday authorizing the Lake Maumelle watershed purchases in a unanimous voice vote when they convened for their monthly meeting.
Raven Lawson, the utility’s watershed-protection manager, told commissioners that the utility owns 11,517 acres in the watershed and has another 589 acres in conservation easements.
The properties before the board on Thursday would bring the utility to a milestone of more than 5,000 acres purchased and placed under protection since 2007, she said.
Funding for the purchases will be drawn from the utility’s $6.5 million green bond, she said.
A 160-acre tract off West Hundley Road shares a mile of its western and southern border with Central Arkansas Water properties, according to a presentation to board members.
The property contains two tributaries to Reece Creek — one of the major tributaries to Lake Maumelle, Lawson said — as well as more than 2,200 feet of the creek itself. The property is owned by Green Bay Packaging, she said.
Lawson suggested the utility was planning to work on acquiring the heart of Reece Creek, too.
The price for the property was listed in the presentation as $850,000, or $5,312.50 per acre.
The second property, a 40-acre tract off Arkansas 300, is only partially in the watershed and is strategically placed near developer-owned properties, Lawson said.
She said the current owner is a farmer named Steven McClellan who had originally sought an easement from Central Arkansas Water for electricity. He had planned to place a house on the ridge and run cattle, she said.
The price was $150,000, or $3,758.64 per acre, according to one slide shown to board members.
The third property is a 17 acres off Higginbotham Road bisected by Rothy Creek, a direct tributary to the Maumelle River, Lawson told board members.
“It’s also a popular spot for illegal dumping in the creek,” she said. “People pull right off Highway 10, they pull down to this and then they can literally roll things into the creek off the back of their trucks. We’ve picked it up several times.”
She explained the significantly higher price for the property — $8,000 an acre totaling $139,760 — as related to its proximity to a Walmart off Chenal Parkway as well as the highway, plus its readiness for development.
A resolution on purchasing a fourth property, 130 acres in the watershed, was pulled from the agenda Thursday, though Lawson said officials hoped to put it back before the board in September.
That parcel apparently is near Torrington Drive west of the lake, according to a slide shown to board members.