James Fork water district gets $3.3 million to expand
Posted on Saturday, January 19, 2008
GREENWOOD — A rural water district serving south Sebastian and north Scott counties has received nearly $ 3. 3 million from the federal government to expand its system.
The James Fork Regional Water District is receiving a $ 1. 485 million rural development grant and a $ 1. 82 million loan, both from the U. S. Department of Agriculture, according to a news release from Rep. John Boozman’s office.
The release states the announcement came from Boozman, R-Ark.; Sens. Blanche Lincoln and Mark Pryor, both D-Ark.; and Rep. Mike Ross, D-Ark.
“This is important funding to ensure water service to our rural residents of Western Arkansas,” Boozman said in the release.
The grant and loan will be used to expand the water district’s services to 350 residents living in the Boles, Parks and Turkey Track area of Scott County, district general manager Wayne Stallings said.
The work will consist of laying 42 miles of three- to eightinch water lines and building a water storage tank and pump station.
Stallings said he believes work will begin this summer. The district still must complete paperwork showing it has the necessary easements to lay the water lines. Once begun, he said, the work should take about a year to complete.
The project is the second of a three-phase expansion program, he said. The first phase, brought about through an agreement between James Fork Regional Water District and the Scott County Regional Water District, added 110 miles of water transmission and distribution lines to 550 rural residents.
Stallings said there would be a third phase, the scope of which hasn’t been determined.
“It’s a good project. We’re excited about it,” Stallings said.
The James Fork Regional Water District began in 1967 as the South Sebastian Water Users Association.
Today, it serves about 15, 000 people in south Sebastian County excluding Greenwood and in north Scott County. It also provides water to Hackett, Huntington, Mansfield and Hartford and the Sebastian Lake Estates area.
The district draws its water from James Fork Lake, a 232-acre reservoir built in the 1980 s on James Fork Creek and Posey Creek near the Sebastian-Scott county line.
The reservoir’s treatment plant can supply up to 3. 25 million gallons of water a day.
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