Cover Image – Hot Springs Village Public Services Committee Tours Mill Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant

Where do we stand in the process for the wastewater upgrade proposal?

For transparency, this report is about an update on the proposed plan for the Hot Springs Village wastewater treatment system, and this proposed plan should not be considered to be set in stone. All options are currently still being evaluated.

Previously a potential plan to upgrade the Village’s wastewater system was reported here. As mentioned, the previous article only detailed a PROPOSED plan, and Public Services Director, Ken Unger, continues to work with the engineers at Crist Engineering to hone in on the best option. Unger is pursuing a different, more streamlined, and economical solution than was previously discussed as the engineering firm answers more questions. Please keep in mind that this article is not yet a report on the final solution but merely the progress in the effort to find the best plan for the wastewater system upgrades.

Hot Springs Village is home to two wastewater treatment plants. Mill Creek Plant is the older of the two and no longer meets our needs, with the plant site lacking room for expansion. Cedar Creek Plant is the newer plant.

Unger said, “We were working with the engineer on upgrading the pumps at Cortez Lift Stations in order to maximize the 16-inch line going from the Cortez Lift Station to the Mill Creek Sewage Process Plant. We got the engineering documents back and the cost to upgrade the lift station in its entirety, including new pumps, new generator, new VFDs [Variable Frequency Drive], the whole kit and kaboodle, to maximize that line cost estimate is approximately $1.5 M.” We have experienced some overflows when there are heavy rain events and upgrading the pumps at the Cortez Lift Stations should eliminate possible overflows.

System overflows were already reduced when the Cortez line was cleaned and repaired. Blockages and other irregularities were found and addressed. Cleaning out this line, of course, caused more material to flow to Mill Creek Plant.

Due to the cleaning and repairing that had already occurred, when the large storm event occurred on May 11, we only had two manholes overflow, where we used to have “half a dozen or more overflows.” The overflow at one manhole was corrected by the addition of a riser in order to isolate the overflow back to the manhole, where we are taking measurements of the overflow. “We haven’t had an overflow since the May 11 rain event. For the most part, the pump replacement is doing its job and has solved the reliability issue. The previous pumps were not reliable. They were failing, which was causing major backups,” explained Unger.

Unger asked the engineer, “What would happen if we just pumped directly to Cedar Creek Sewage Plant? What would it take at that point?” Unger knew that to max out the 16-inch line between Cortez Lift Station and Mill Creek Plant, we needed 200 horsepower pumps.” The engineers revisited the issue and determined that for an additional 15% increase in horsepower, we would be able to pump material passing through the Cortez Lift Station directly to the Cedar Creek Plant.

The current thought is that we will not need to pump to Mill Creek Plant, reducing the size of the lift station at Mill Creek. Potentially, the material could be pumped to Cedar Creek or the Cortez Lift Station. This could possibly result in savings of several $M. “in the overall scheme of things.”

Unger continued, “Everything is working well, it is just we know that those pumps need to do more, and if we are going to upgrade them to do more, we’re going to upgrade them to take the material all the way to Cedar Creek Plant so we don’t have to worry about spending millions and millions of dollars on Mill Creek.

“You can see the reduction in cost tied to the lack of need to upgrade the flow equalization basin at Mill Creek Plant and the reduction of the Mill Creek Lift Station costs. There might be some upgrades to Cedar Creek Plant to handle higher pressure in the distribution line. Effectively, the net result is about $3M less to do this, and it can be done in stages. We can still upgrade the pumps at the Cortez lift station. We will use the existing 16-inch line while the force main is being built. Doing this will ensure the distribution system that is upstream doesn’t overflow. Once the force main is completed, we will cut to it from Cortez and deliver all that flow directly to Cedar Creek Plant. Then we can work on the Mill Creek Lift Station, and ultimately, the plant will be decommissioned in its entirety – not even being used as a flow equalization basin [storage of sewage]. This is possible. This looks like it is shaping to be the direction we want to go.”

We will most likely create a Flow Equalization Basin at Cedar Creek Plant and will not need to expand at Mill Creek Plant.

Unger said the engineer is still tweaking some details. Unger’s meeting with the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality was delayed because DEQ is revamping our permits based on changes, and they want to wait until our permits are updated. The permits will most likely be updated in the middle of August. At that time, Unger plans to set up a meeting with the DEQ to review the permits and the proposed sewage system updates. Unger believes DEQ will accept our proposal because we will be eliminating one sewage treatment plant, which the DEQ prefers.

Board Director and Public Services Committee Liason Larry Siener said, “It sounds as if your message to DEQ, while not a wonderful story, is certainly better than we had a year ago.”

Unger agreed. “We could go under consent decree still because of overflows. That is part of DEQ’s requirements, but I think as long as they know that we have a plan to address it, they may argue with the timing and debate how fast we are doing this. But I think as long as we have a plan, they’ll be willing to work with us,” shared Unger.

The total current estimated cost for the proposed wastewater treatment system upgrades is $22.85 to $30.75 million.

If DEQ approval is given, the work with the Cortez Lift Station is anticipated to begin in 2024. (The HSVPOA Board of Directors and General Manager will also evaluate this project.) Unger said that, hopefully, he will know more within the next 30 days.

By Cheryl Dowden

Contact Information for Public Services Director

Ken Unger
Director Public Services
Hot Springs Village
501-226-9609
Kunger@hsvpoa.org