Water Utilities guests at Civitan
El DORADO — General Manager of El Dorado Water Utilities, Mark Smith, talked about the company and how they are committed to providing clean, safe water for all of their customers at the El Dorado Civitan Club meeting on Thursday.
Smith was born and raised in Dallas, graduated from Southern Methodist University and in 1982, was the youngest district manager ever promoted at Tandy Corp., where he managed a two-state territory. He founded Mark Smith Communications in 1999, a chain of Authorized Retail Stores for AT&T that he sold to Apex Communications in 2012.
In 2000, he was awarded Small Business of the Year by the El Dorado Chamber of Commerce, and in 2001, received the Citizen of the Year Award by the El Dorado Civitan Club.
Smith has been the general manager of El Dorado Water Utilities (EWU) since 2013.
The El Dorado Water Utilities provide clear, clean, Sparta Aquifer drinking water to the local community. EWU is a combination of two businesses, the water utility and the waste water utility. “We actually keep separate books on each business, which is why we refer to ourselves as the El Dorado Water Utilities,” Smith said.
The company has 65 employees, with 24 of them being licensed with the state of Arkansas through Arkansas Department of Health.
They have nearly $8.5 million in revenue every year and the average residential bill is about $35. Last year, they pumped over 1.3 billion gallons of water. There are almost 10,500 water meters in the ground in El Dorado.
EWU is a managing partner of the Ouachita River joint pipeline, which is a 27 mile long pipeline that cost about $9 million to build six years ago, Smith said. Inside the pipeline is treated waste water, which services Lion Oil, El Dorado Chemical, Great Lakes and other plants in El Dorado.
The residential water comes from the Sparta Aquifer. Water filters into the Sparta Aquifer from the surface. “It is a great big pool of water underground, hundreds and hundreds of feet below the surface,” Smith said. “The aquifer can be damaged or ruined, which is why the people of Union County passed a tax about 12 to 15 years ago to bring a pipeline into El Dorado to get our industries out of the aquifer and provide them with water from the river.”
This saves the Sparta Aquifer for residents to use as drinking water.
The company can pump 12 million gallons per day, but are currently averaging 3.5 million gallons per day. “That’s because our population used to be almost twice what it is now,” Smith said. “What the utility really needs to be healthy in the years to come would be to have another high volume, fresh water industry come to El Dorado.”
The number one water waste source in every home is the toilet, he said. Toilets made before the 1980s take five gallons of water per flush. New models that are high efficiency can use as little as 1.28 gallons per flush. Smith suggests upgrading to high efficiency fixtures and also a “low flow shower head,” which can save $75 a year on your water bill.
A new feature the water company has installed is robocalls. “If you’re about to get cut off, then we
have a computer that calls you and tells you that you’re in danger of having your service cut off,” Smith said. “That’s something we’ve worked on for a long time and we’re glad to have it.”
Last year, the company replaced everybody’s water meter with a cellular meter and transmitter. With this feature, you can download an app called Eye On Water and access your water usage by entering your account number. “It’s a very simple thing to do and it’s very interesting to see how much water you’re using every day,” Smith said. “It (the meter) samples your use by the hour, so everyday, everyone of you that’s a customer of El Dorado Water, we’re able to tell how much water you’re using and we’re able to tell if you have a leak,” Smith said.
The company is also working on multiple special projects around town. One project is the community service lines, which is an issue with multiple houses on a private sewer line. The city has provided $50,000 for the utility to use from the economic development tax from now until the end of the year to fix as many of these lines they are made aware of. “They plan on sitting aside $200,000 every year going forward from that tax,” Smith said.
Some other projects include widening highway 335, the five lane widening on highway 82 West, new infrastructure for Festivals and Events, waterline replacement program and a waste water master plan.
“We’ve got crews that are specifically trained and managed to do large construction projects,” Smith said. “We do this kind of work all the time. You might think of us as just the water company that fixes leaks and that sort of thing, but we’re doing a lot more complicated work in addition to that.”
The EWU holds a meeting on the fourth Wednesday of every month, which is open to the public. The meetings are held at City Hall in the second floor conference room.
There are a few different options when paying your water bill. You can pay in person at the office, by mail, by automated bank draft, using your bank’s online bill pay, by credit card online or by dropping your payment in the drop box.
The lobby hours are 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and the drive-thru window is open 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., with the office at 500 N. Washington. Their website is www.eldoradowater.com.
“We try to be very transparent in everything that we do,” Smith said. “Our mission is that El Dorado Water Utilities are committed to providing exceptional customer service and superior water services while protecting our environmental resources.”