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State sues Bethel Heights over wastewater treatment plant

After continuing to be non-compliant with ADEQ permits, the state is suing the City of Bethel Heights over wastewater in resident's yards.

BETHEL HEIGHTS, Ark. — The saga of the City of Bethel Heights wastewater issue continues,
now with the state of Arkansas suing the city after it didn't stop seepage from pooling at the wastewater treatment plant.

People living near the plant say dirty water and what looks like toilet paper is flowing into their yards.

“It has gotten worse in the last few months. They supposedly fixed it you know and did a lot of work. It hasn’t done much good,” resident Lawrence Bowen said.

RELATED: Bethel Heights Residents Petition To Become Part Of Springdale Over Water Quality Concerns; City Misses ADEQ Deadline

Benton County court documents show that the City of the Bethel Heights will have to pay more than $80,000 in fines to the state after their wastewater treatment plant is still not in compliance with the state’s orders.

RELATED: Bethel Heights Officials Face Criminal Charges If Wastewater Issue Left Unsolved

RELATED: Bethel Heights Responds To Accusations Against Wastewater Treatment System

Lawrence Bowen has lived in his house for 42 years that sits right behind the wastewater treatment plant. This time, he says there is what appears to be toilet paper in his yard. He says he’s glad the state is helping to stop the problem.

“It’s been over on me for the last 10 or 13 years and I’ve talked to them different times about it and they say 'oh we are going to fix it, we are going to fix it', but it’s never been fixed,” he said.

Back in October of 2019, the city agreed to resolve the violation of its permit by submitting a detailed plan to address the violations and a haul off action plan for the wastewater. They also agreed to pay a penalty of more than $100,000 but ADEQ agreed to not make the city pay $81,000 of that sum if it complied with the terms, but ADEQ says city officials didn’t.

RELATED: ADEQ Fines Bethel Heights Over $100K For Violating Water Pollution Laws

“It’s unbelievable that it takes this much to get a public health hazard stopped,” Joe Brooks said.

Joe Brooks is related to the family that lives to the east of the Bowen’s. He says they installed surveillance cameras to catch when the water starts coming over onto the Bowen’s property. They even put rubber ducks in the yard, so when it gets flooded, they can see just how far the wastewater goes.

“It’s shame that with all the money being spent on the kayak parks and everything downstream that this is allowed to happen,” he said.

The City of Bethel Heights’ Attorney Robert Rhoads released the following statement:

“The city is extremely disappointed that DEQ chose to take this action. Filing suit alleging Bethel Heights is not incompliance with its agreement under the CAO is simply the wrong approach. The city has worked diligently to address the problems with its wastewater treatment system. We have been in constant communication with DEQ in an effort to respond to DEQ’s constantly imposing more and more requirements on the city. For example, last fall DEQ requested that we haul off 20,000 gallons per day of wastewater from the Lincoln Street plant. We have now increased the haul off volume of wastewater to as much as 81,800 gallons per day (the volume hauled off on February 25) depending on site conditions. In the most recent month of February, we hauled off total of one million six hundred eight thousand four hundred gallons (1,608,400) an average of over 55,000 gallons per day. In January we hauled off 1,309,300 gallons. We have increased haul off to seven days per week. Last week, the city council awarded a contract that will allow us to remove even more wastewater from the system to prevent surfacing, and to have onsite storage capacity of approximately 126,000 gallons. We are working with the manufacturer of the treatment plant to improve its operation. We continue to pursue the connection to NACA. Our engineers are exploring a portable wastewater treatment system that would temporarily replace the existing treatment system at Lincoln Street. We have offered to pay Springdale a premium to accept our wastewater while we work on a long-term connect with NACA We believe this offer was rejected because Springdale is intent on forcing Bethel Heights to annex to it so it can get our tax base and undeveloped land. In other words, rather than being a good neighbor concerned about the environment, Springdale is using this unfortunate situation against its neighbor. This just scratches the surface of what has been done. To compile all of our efforts to address this would entail many hours.

Regarding the demand of $81,200, DEQ asks for that by way of judgment. We do not believe DEQ is entitled to judgment against the city because the city has met its obligations under the CAO. DEQ’s lawsuit is misplaced.

Again, we believe the city is complying with its obligations under the CAO and its permit. Some of the efforts to address this take time as DEQ itself has acknowledged. But we are working day and night to address the issues.

We continue to work on both short term and long term solutions. We are committed to compliance with our permit and the CAO and we will continue to work toward that goal despite DEQ’s misplaced lawsuit against us."

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