Raising a stink

Sewage struggles become annexation fight

Will it go down as the Great Land War of 2019 or be poopooed (yes, we went there) as a minor jurisdictional skirmish born of one town’s inability to adequately handle its sewage?

Bethel Heights is in a pinch, and not just because it’s a tiny community wedged between larger municipalities — Lowell to the north and Springdale to the south … and west

… and east. It’s a town struggling to meet a basic function, properly treating sewage and protecting residents and the environment from a harmful byproduct of its human population.

Today’s circumstances are born of the region’s population growth in recent decades. Indeed, the existence of Bethel Heights as a city is directly related to Northwest Arkansas’ population and development boom. Bethel Heights didn’t become an incorporated town until 1967, just after Beaver Lake was completed and prospects for the region’s growth were strong.

Neighboring communities date much further back — Lowell in 1905, Springdale in 1878.

Bethel Heights’ birth was a defensive move inspired by concerns that a larger city would annex the area. As recently as 2000, its population was less than 1,000 people. Today, it’s closer to 2,800.

It’s by no means the only small-ish community in Arkansas incorporated as a way to prevent some larger community from controlling its destiny. Fair enough. But setting up defensive boundaries isn’t the same as taking care of the responsibilities that every municipality has to meet the fundamental needs of its residents in a responsible way.

Bethel Heights is struggling, at least according to the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality. It operates what’s known as a STEP system for treating sewage from residents and businesses. Rather than each property owner having a self-contained septic system, which requires substantial land for underground drain pipes, Bethel Heights’ system collects the liquids from community septic tanks and operates its own underground drain fields that use the soil’s capacity to clean wastewater.

According to state records, however, Bethel Heights for years has failed to meet the conditions of its state permit. The state says the city’s system has not kept the wastewater from bubbling to the surface at times. The city is now under orders to use trucks to haul much of the liquid away to treatment plants operated by other cities or entities that manage to fulfill their responsibilities

to avoid polluting their own back yards.

Criminal charges have been threatened. Stiff fines have been lodged. The state asked Springdale, which provides Bethel Heights’ water, to cease granting new service to the smaller town’s customers. Complaints from Bethel Heights property owners show concerns about contamination of private properties. Bethel Heights’ mayor and City Council have denied many of the claims against the city, blaming private complaints about contamination on cows and other animals and nearby ponds they use.

Now, the clash has become an annexation battle. One family has petitioned Springdale to annex their 73 acres away from Bethel Heights on the basis that the smaller community is incapable of providing a level of sewage treatment they need. It appears there are plans to develop the property, but a lack of sewage treatment capacity would clearly be a limiting factor.

Bethel Heights’ attorney has said the city can handle the family’s request, but Springdale City Attorney Ernest Cate said “we all know they can’t.”

The annexation request will undoubtedly lead to litigation.

Undoubtedly, 52 years after Bethel Heights incorporated, there are concerns about Springdale carving away some of the private property (and tax base) of the smaller community. Those are fair concerns for the mayor and City Council.

The antidote to that is for Bethel Heights to take care of its business, to operate a sewage treatment system that is beyond reproach. Perhaps Bethel Heights is doing the best it can and all it can afford, but so far, based on the state’s evaluation, that doesn’t appear to be enough.

The treatment struggles for Bethel Heights appear almost insurmountable. For Springdale, handling sewage from another 73 acres is a fairly minor addition to its system.

Why is this anyone else’s business? Because when we’re talking about sewage treatment systems, we’re talking about the environment. And we’re talking about water quality. Ineffective or insufficient sewage treatment eventually impacts all of Northwest Arkansas. It all rolls downhill, as they say, and in this region that means it’s either going into the White River — and the region’s water supply at Beaver Lake — or into the Illinois River.

Bethel Heights must solve its treatment woes or lose its capacity to object when the circumstances lead to a shrinking of its already diminutive size.