Buffalo River Sewege Issue On-Going

[Zack Hoyt]

State moves to get sewer fixed at river

Buffalo’s spring popularity cited in repair of lift station

By Robert J. Smith

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Print item

NORTHWEST ARKANSAS — Arkansas Attorney General Dustin McDaniel on Tuesday asked a circuit judge for a preliminary injunction to stop untreated sewage from flowing into a Buffalo National River tributary.

McDaniel’s request, filed with the Newton County circuit clerk’s office, is intended to force the Marble Falls Sewer Improvement District into finding short- and long-term solutions to prevent about 3,600 gallons of sewage a day from reaching Mill Creek.

The creek flows six miles before it enters the Buffalo River.

Buffalo National River Superintendent Kevin Cheri said he wants the problem with the district’s faulty sewer lift station resolved before spring when the river is filled with canoes and fishermen.

“Pollution is always bad, but from a public-health standpoint, there’s some time to get this corrected before the heavy visitor use of the river,” Cheri said.

According to the state’s motion for an injunction filedon behalf of the state Department of Environmental Quality, the untreated sewage elevated the amount of fecal coliform bacteria in Mill Creek. The level posed a “substantial risk and irreparable harm to public health and the environment,” the state wrote in its court filing.

“There’s irreparable harm here, and we don’t have time to wait for the entire trial process to be complete to figure out if they violated the law,” said Justin Allen, McDaniel’s chief deputy.

The Marble Falls sewage lift station is meant to force waste up a hill so it can flow down the other side to the community’s small sewer plant. The lift station failed during last year’s ice storm, and the Marble Falls Sewer Improvement District hasn’t repaired it.

The sewer district, which serves 25 property owners who live about nine miles south of Harrison, took over the sewer system, which once served Dogpatch USA, a defunct theme park.

The sewer plant is permit-ted to treat up to 6,800 gallons of waste a day, and its main line’s faulty lift station is no longer pushing through the 3,600 gallons of sewage it receives each day. The flow comes from six- and 24-unit apartment complexes and some homes, said Donnie Crain, a sewer district commissioner.

In a Jan. 19 letter sent to the Environmental Quality Department, Crain said commissioners determined there are no immediate or short-term repairs that make sense.

“The only financially feasible option for the district to pursue in the immediate/short-term is the continued development of a long-term solution to the faulty lift station,” Crain wrote.

Crain said in an interview that the goal is to replace the lift station by May. That’ll cost about $60,000, he said.

“I want to do what I can to find the solution,” Crain said.

However, Environmental Quality Department spokesman Aaron Sadler said May isn’t soon enough.

“For the environment’s sake and for the tourists, that’s too late,” Sadler said.

Crain said he’s contemplated short-term options since sending the letter to the Environmental Quality Department. One would involve allowing the untreated sewage to collect in the faulty lift station, and then trucking it about 2,000 feet to the top of the hilland allowing it to flow to the sewer plant.

“That’s fairly expensive,” Crain said.

The Newton County case against the Marble Falls district was assigned Tuesday to Circuit Judge Shawn Womack. Womack isn’t scheduled to hear cases in Newton County until next month so the state will ask him to hold his evidentiary hearing in another county, Allen said.

“We need to get this shut down,” Allen said.

Northwest Arkansas, Pages 9 on 02/03/2010

[bobber]

they got a loaner pump installed, so for now all is good!! and water testing is on going