The bills for growth in Bentonville are coming due in a new and intimidating way.

Consultants are recommending $103 million in immediate sewer upgrades in Bentonville, plus another $82.8 million in additional upgrades over the next 20 years.

The recommendations are the result of a years-long study by Olsson, a design and engineering firm. The firm produced two reports, totaling more than 150 pages, that detail the condition of the sewer system and outline upgrades needed to support future growth.

Development Already Stalled in Some Areas of Bentonville

Bentonville is already approaching the limit of what its existing sewer infrastructure was designed to handle.

The consultants studied four basins — essentially, neighborhoods of the sewer system — that cover the core of Bentonville.

They recommend immediate upgrades in all of them, but in two, development is currently being stalled due to capacity issues. 

The Shewmaker Basin (northeast) and South Lift Station Basin (southeast) — are already at capacity, leading the city to reject new developments.

"We have a list of developments that we just don't have room for," said Preston Newbill, deputy water utility director. “We have to look at these new developments and design our sewer system so it will handle the potential water coming from those developments if every person used every fixture at the same time.”

What Needs Fixing?

At the simplest level, the pipes that carry sewage to treatment plants are too small to handle current and future growth — and fixing that will be expensive.

In the immediate term, the consultants recommend $103 million for 17 projects to upsize sewer lines and improve lift stations, the facilities that pump wastewater to treatment plants.

Less costly wastewater upgrades are expected in 2030, 2035, 2040, and 2045 at a combined cost of $82.8 million. The additional projects have estimated timelines, but consultants also identified specific triggers utility staff can look for to know when to upgrade parts of the system. 

Do Upgrades Need to Happen Right Now?

Part of that depends on whether the city is going to follow its own plan.

The Future Land Use Map, finalized earlier this year, lays out where and how the city expects to grow in the coming decades. It includes population projections showing the area covered by the sewer reports will more than triple to 116,510 residents by 2050.

A common criticism of the city is that it hasn’t been proactive about growth. However, according to Mayor Stephanie Orman, investing in the sewer system now is what being proactive looks like.

“We're trying to be as proactive as possible and really set the standard for how you utilize a land use plan and build out to it,” Orman said.

Next Steps – And Paying For It

Right now, the problems are clear, but the city’s exact path forward isn’t. 

Whether major upgrades move ahead depends on City Council approval, and city staff are still working on planning the next steps.

When the finalized sewer reports were presented to the City Council in April, there seemed to be general agreement that the two basins where development has been slowed are the top priority.

“My priority right now is, how do I get the two basins back online?” City Council member Bill Burckart said.

The biggest open question: How will the city pay for the upgrades?

The short answer: nobody knows yet.

Patrick Johndrow, the city’s finance director, said the city wants to avoid raising rates on residents.

“Mayor Orman has told us this is growth related,” he said. “She wants to keep everything out of rates, so I'm working through every possibility. … The easy button is to push the rates, but it's not what we want to do.”

Here are alternative strategies the city could rely on:

Charging Developers

One option is to install infrastructure now and charge developers as projects come online over the next few decades. That approach could prevent a repeat of today’s development bottlenecks and offer more predictability for builders.

State and Federal Grants

Another possibility is seeking support from federal and state sources. 

“We generate a lot of taxes for state and federal government here. So we're hoping that means something,” Johndrow said.

The State of Arkansas recently passed legislation that could provide up to $575 million for wastewater upgrades across the state.

Combining Infrastructure With Other Cities

Bentonville isn’t alone in facing big wastewater questions. Fayetteville is considering a bond measure for water and sewer upgrades, and development in Centerton and Decatur is currently paused due to issues at the wastewater treatment facility that serves the cities.

Among developers and local government leaders, there are early conversations about merging sewer and water systems into larger regional authorities. 

Potentially combining infrastructure amidst NWA’s rapid growth was a key topic of discussion at a recent summit organized by ULI Northwest Arkansas. "We can do this together, but we can't do it separately," Councilman Burckart said at the event.

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