For the second time this month there has been a complaint made about discharges from the Eureka Springs Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP) into Leatherwood Creek. Earlier in the month, Public Works Director Simon Wiley said that sludge found a mile from the treatment plant and could not have come from the facility that treats wastewater for Eureka Springs.
“We take things like that seriously,” Wiley said. “In our plant, there is no way for sludge to get through the plant into the discharge. We don’t allow that. We end up pressing the solids and they go into a dump truck, get dumped into a dumpster at my office and hauled to the landfill at Tontitown.”
WWTP Manager Terry R. Long wrote to the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ) that during the incident Sept. 5 there was not a discharge of raw sewage from the city’s facility. “I am not saying that it would be impossible for raw sewage to accidentally or inadvertently escape our treatment facility, but that was not the case as all the evidence found was brown to indicate that we experienced a ‘solids washout,’ and nothing was found with a grey color indicating raw or untreated sewage,” Long wrote.
The second incident was an overflow of sewage at the WWTP Thursday, Sept. 14, from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. and was caused by equipment failure, according to a report filed by Public Works with ADEQ. “SBR2 Basin overflowed,” Wiley wrote in an email. “Plant manager was called in and corrected and monitored throughout the night. Assumed cause is electrical interference with SCADA.” SCADA stands for supervisory control and data acquisition, a program that uses digital networks and computer systems to gather and analyze real-time data.
The Public Works report said there was no evidence of adverse health/environmental impact.
A local couple who owns property downstream from the WWTP observed the sewage overflowing the walls in the Sept. 14 incident. Cherice Robertson said the city then discharged so much raw sewage into Leatherwood Creek near their property that the normally shallow creek increased by a foot and a half. Robertson said she had difficulty finding the right agency to report the incident. She called the police, who said they would notify Public Works. But Robertson said she didn’t hear back from the city the day of the incident.
“I called the EPA, and the health department,” Robertson said. “I probably called thirty different people. I heard nothing back from them. I called the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality. No one ever answered. Then I was told I could go online and file a formal complaint, which I did. I asked for an official police report on this. To my understanding, what they were doing was illegal.”
Robertson said she is also upset that in the first incident, Wiley said the sludge found could have come from a septic tank overflow. She said they have the only septic tank in the area and that it has not overflowed.
“Our septic tank is not leaking,” she said. “I am just kind of blown away at this point. I don’t feel I have found anyone who cares at this point. I haven’t heard back from anybody.”
Later she spoke to Wiley who referred her to the City of Eureka Springs Public Works Facebook page. The post said: “Last night there was a sanitary sewer overflow at our wastewater treatment plant. Raw sewage overflowed the Sequencing Batch Reactor (SBR) 2 basin. The plant manager was notified of the overflow situation and spent the night at the plant working to correct the issue.
“As of now, everything appears to be operating as normal. The impacted area looks like it has been contained to the gravel parking lot for the most part and the overflow looks to have been primarily clear wastewater and some floating fat. Our crew will be applying lime to the affected area today. ADEQ will be notified this morning of this overflow event.”
Robertson provided photos of the sewage overflowing the cement walls of the plant, brown material covering rocks in the creek channel near the WWTP and brown matter on rocks in the creek near their homes. On Sept. 18 this reporter observed rocks covered with brown material in Leatherwood Creek near the plant and on rocks and the shoreline near the Robertson’s property. Robertson said it hasn’t rained recently to wash away the brown material.
Robertson said the city can say all day long there was no significant environmental impact, but is there evidence of that?
“An inspector needs to go to the facility and actually monitor what is happening instead of trusting that their account is accurate,” Robertson said. “The rocks are covered in a brown mess and there is brown sludge in the water. The rocks should not still be wet and muddy. This is the second incident this month. What concerns me the most is that they will keep on doing it.”
A Sept. 18 request to ADEQ for more information on the two incidents was not provided by deadline.