Catch Up Quickly
In early May, The Bentonville Bulletin reported the following:
A report from consultants finalized in April recommended $103 million in immediate sewer upgrades in Bentonville, plus another $82.8 million in additional upgrades over the next 20 years.
The consultants studied four basins — essentially, neighborhoods of the sewer system — that cover the core of Bentonville. In two of them — one covering the northeast part of town, and the other covering the southeast — projects are already being turned away due to a lack of sewer capacity.
At the time of our initial report, nobody was sure how to pay for the upgrades, or which projects would be pursued and on what timeline.
The most immediate concerns aren’t about sewage treatment capacity — they’re about the sewer pipes and pump stations that carry sewage to the treatment facilities.
At a Planning Commission meeting on Tuesday, Preston Newbill, deputy water utility director, gave an update on the sewer capacity situation that is blocking developments from moving forward in parts of Bentonville.
He began by saying the situation was evolving and encouraged developers to meet with water utility staff as an initial planning step to see if their projects are feasible with existing sewer capacity.
In two basins — one covering the northeast part of town, and the other covering the southeast — projects are already being turned away due to capacity issues. Now, a third sewer basin’s capacity — the one covering downtown — is of such concern that developments could also be paused there.
A map of Bentonville’s sewer basins. Shewmaker Basin is shown in purple, and the South Lift Station Basin is shown in green — both are areas where developments are currently being turned away due to limited capacity. Now, the Town Branch Basin, shown in blue, is also considered to be nearing capacity.
“We are recently learning that Town Branch is having some capacity issues as well,” Newbill said. “I understand that it seems like a moving target. This is a system that is evolving, and more developments are coming on, and those developments are taking capacity, so available capacity is changing daily.”
How Soon Can Sewer Capacity Be Fixed?
Newbill said utility staff are zeroing in on action plans for the basins with the most immediate concerns, as well as financing options to fund upgrades.
In response to questions from planning commissioners, Newbill said that “timeline’s hard for me to answer.”
When someone hears about sewage capacity, they might picture sewer pipes bursting from being maxed out, but there is not an immediate risk of that happening.
State health regulations require multiplying the average daily sewer line flow by four when calculating capacity to account for extreme rain events and other strains on the system. It is unlikely that our sewer system would ever experience such an overwhelming surge, but state officials approach the matter with an abundance of caution.
City leaders hope that if construction and financing plans are approved, the Arkansas Department of Health might be more lenient in allowing developments to proceed before the sewer upgrades are actually completed, Newbill said.
What Projects Get Approved?
A planning commissioner asked how they should handle projects that come to them for approval in the areas where capacity is limited.
“If there’s not capacity, you’re not going to see them,” Tyler Overstreet, city planning director, said.
As a matter of clarification, commissioners asked about a rezoning request for the agrihood development that they would go on to approve later in the meeting. It’s on the southern edge of Bentonville, one of the areas of concern flagged months ago. The rezoning, which has been in the works for some time, moved forward, but large-scale development plans — which would allow construction to actually begin — may not be sent to the Planning Commission because of the capacity issues.
The process of “assigning” capacity to developments is complicated, which is causing uncertainty and frustration among developers.
Some projects have already been assigned sewer capacity — a precious commodity in today’s development environment — but haven’t moved forward because of delays on the developers’ end. That’s raised questions among planning commissioners about whether those projects should continue holding onto that capacity.
“We’re having renewals, and trying to figure out do we let them to continue to hold that capacity, or because they haven’t moved forward, put them back at the end again,” Planning Commissioner Dana Davis said.