Beaver Lake : Seedy sewer system a concern
Posted on Sunday, October 22, 2006
PRAIRIE CREEK — Wayne Allen walked through an unlocked chain-link gate Thursday and pointed to waist-high weeds and 20-foot oak trees losing their leaves on the crisp fall day.
The trees and overgrown grass and weeds are growing in a sand filter, a gravel pit that is half of the decentralized sewer system at Sunset Bay, a subdivision east of Rogers. The system’s filters are supposed to be clear of vegetation so pumps can filter wastewater coming from Sunset Bay’s seven homes.
Five filters have been abandoned, leaving partially treated wastewater to drain into a nearby creek that runs south for 1, 000 feet before emptying directly into Beaver Lake.
“It’s essentially raw sewage,” said Allen, district manager for Benton County Water District No. 1. “This should have been mowed from day one.”
The water district isn’t responsible for the system because it doesn’t maintain the subdivision’s sewer system, Allen said. Sunset Bay’s property owners association was given that responsibility by developer Wesley Kent Neff, whose company, Summit One LLC, declared bankruptcy in September.
Benton County officials said they aren’t accountable for the sewer system because they can’t enforce Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality wastewater regulations.
The Environmental Quality Department doesn’t have jurisdiction because it doesn’t have stipulations in its permit process requiring applicants to prove long-term financial stability, said officials of both the county and the agency.
Benton County water officials have complained about the situation, so County Judge Gary Black has discussed ways to prevent such problems in the future, including requiring the county to approve all decentralized sewer systems.
“It’s kind of like [Hurricane ] Katrina. You don’t ever really plan on those things until it happens,” Black said. “We do know they have to be controlled and maintained.”
HOW THE SYSTEMS WORK Sunset Bay’s plans included 136 homes when the project was approved by the Benton County Planning Board in February 2000. The subdivision has only 11, seven of which are part of the decentralized sewer system. If any of the homes using the system are sold and water accounts are terminated, the water district won’t restore service for the new owners, Allen said. Their recourse would be to install a septic tank.
Decentralized sewer systems are increasingly common in unincorporated areas of Benton and Washington counties that lack city sewer service, said Tom Bartlett, owner of Aqua Tech Systems, which builds and operates decentralized systems.
They operate like small municipal sewer systems. In the case of Sunset Bay, wastewater is routed to filters, where it is chemically treated and cleaned. Electric pumps bring the effluent to a drip irrigation system above the filters. The water runs through pipes and drains into the soil.
The systems allow more homes on the same acreage than septic tanks because septic tanks, unlike decentralized systems, do not treat water to city standards, Bartlett said. “It is the next kind of infrastructure in the country,” Bartlett said. “On a decentralized sewer system, it takes 15 to 20 homes on the system to equal the bacteria level of one septic tank.”
WHAT CAN GO WRONG Problems can arise when operators do not have the equipment or knowledge to maintain the systems, said Scott Borman, plant manager of the Benton-Washington Regional Public Water Authority, commonly known as Two-Ton. Borman, who served on the Benton County Planning Board, said homeowners don’t have the ability to maintain decentralized systems.
“To turn this over to them is just crazy,” Borman said. “Property owners associations 99 percent of the time are not going to have a licensed operator looking at these.”
Sunset Bay’s covenants indicate the association is responsible for the system, but Neff said members haven’t paid their dues that fund system maintenance.
“We tried to have a POA meeting, but no one wanted to talk to me,” Neff said. “The only management of it is to hire someone to maintain it. A POA is more than capable of doing it.”
Neff, who lives in the subdivision but plans to move, said the system is operating adequately. Someone needs to maintain the land, he said. “Right now it’s nothing a bit of Roundup wouldn’t cure,” he said. “The project’s in bankruptcy and there’s no more money to fund it.”
WHO’S RESPONSIBLE ? Borman crafted a decentralized wastewater application form after representatives from Grandview Heights at Beaver Lake, a 15-story condominium project, suggested last year that they would build a decentralized system. According to the form, which the county has approved, applicants must submit the name of the system’s licensed operator, the facility’s location and expected capacity, and proof of financial solvency. Benton County doesn’t have to approve the applications, Borman said. The county just needs to examine them.
“We just asked for additional information,” he said. “I don’t think there’s an approval mechanism or authority that the county has.”
Borman said it’s the state’s job to enforce compliance because wastewater permits are issued by the Environmental Quality Department.
The financial solvency section of the application comes directly from Arkansas Annotated Code 8-5-703, Borman said.
The law, Act 336 of 1995, requires that the department “not permit or register any common sewage system serving two or more occupied lots... without the applicant demonstrating its ability to cover costs for five years.”
“ADEQ needs to step up and do their job,” he said. “You can quote me on that.”
But Keith Brown, manager of the permit branch of the department’s water division, said the law applies to operators who chronically don’t comply.
A letter sent by the Environmental Quality Department to Neff in August 2005 states that the facility had been operating without a permit since Sept. 28, 2003, violating the Arkansas Water and Air Pollution Control Act.
The letter requested that Neff correct seven violations noted by a department field inspector, and stated that Neff provide proof that he corrected the violations in a written response.
But the department doesn’t require operators to prove extended financial solvency when applying for a permit, Brown said. Such permits are up for renewal every five years, and Sunset Bay’s permit has lapsed, he said. “We don’t have any current regulations or requirements for long-term financial stability,” Brown said. “Our permit stands alone outside their [city or county ] jurisdiction.” Brown said the department can’t do anything to force Neff to comply because his subdivision declared bankruptcy. “In this case, there is no one to fault,” he said. “The county can take whatever action they deem necessary.”
ATTEMPTS TO CORRECT Area officials offer different solutions to prevent a future Sunset Bay.
Public entities should be the only groups permitted to operate decentralized sewer systems, said John Sampier, executive director of the Northwest Arkansas Conservation Authority.
Such entities have proven their financial stability and can guard against bankruptcy, he said.
Sampier has been approached by representatives of Grandview Heights to contract with the authority to operate their system.
“If ‘Joe Schmo’ was hired by the developer to operate the system for him and the developer goes bankrupt, the people who work for him don’t have a job,” Sampier said. “While there are no regulatory requirements, everyone is best served by a public entity operating these systems.”
Not all government entities are equipped to maintain the facilities, Borman said. The authority and Benton County Water District No. 1 both have been considering operating the system planned for Grandview Heights, but neither has the equipment, he said.
“It can be run publicly or privately,” Borman said.
Washington County’s Rural Development Authority allows developers, public and private groups, and property owner associations to operate decentralized systems. But the operators must be bonded and the authority must approve all applications, said Rhonda Hulse, Washington County’s public utility coordinator. “We want to make sure they will be financially fine,” Hulse said. Washington County passed its decentralized sewer system ordinance in July 2005. Each system is audited annually. The ordinance requires that a percentage of the operator’s revenue be dedicated to reserves in case of an emergency, she said. “We don’t want to get in a position where if one of these fails we have to come up with the money out of our pocket,” she said.
WHAT WILL IT TAKE ? Allen said it could cost as much as $ 500, 000 to fix the broken decentralized sewer system in Sunset Bay. Neff said the system is working and his companies have no more money to pay for repairs. “I’m in a Catch-22,” Neff said. “There’s nothing wrong with the systems. A tree fell on a fence. It hasn’t been abandoned.” As long as new homes don’t connect to the system, it will continue to operate for an indefinite period of time. In the meantime, Allen wants the county to define its regulations. “If Benton County came in and did what Washington County is doing, I could support that because there’s an avenue if someone files bankruptcy,” Allen said. “I hate to be crude, but it will take toilet paper floating in Beaver Lake.”
To contact this reporter: lboch@arkansasonline. com
FEEDBACK:
Something to say about this topic? Submit a Letter to the Editor online
