Fort Smith Board sets hearing date for possible sewer rate changes

The Fort Smith Board of Directors has set a public hearing date on the change in sewer rates for 6 p.m., March 17, at the Fort Smith Schools Service Center. The decision came by way of a unanimous vote on Tuesday night (March 3) at the Board’s regular meeting, and is the next step in fulfilling the terms of a $480 million settlement with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Department of Justice (DOJ).

On Jan. 5, the EPA released details of the order, which directed the city of Fort Smith to make $255 million in improvements over the course of 12 years as a result of allegedly violating the Clean Water Act since at least 2004. An additional $225 million would go toward routine operation and maintenance. Together, the two charges could result in Fort Smith residents seeing their sewer rates triple by 2026.

Since 2004, Fort Smith has had more than 2,000 discharges of untreated sewage from its municipal sewage system, resulting in more than 119 million gallons of raw sewage flowing into local waterways, including the Arkansas River.

Implementation of the consent decree will reduce discharges of 3,492 pounds of total suspended solids, 3,343 pounds of biological oxygen demand, 543 pounds of nitrogen, and 78 pounds of phosphorus from the Fort Smith sewage system each year.

On Tuesday, some City Directors remained hesitant about the sewer rate increase, with Director George Catsavis asking the Board to explore a penny sales tax. This would remove part of the burden from Fort Smith residents and place some of it on visitors — mostly from surrounding areas — who frequently shop in Fort Smith.

City Administrator Ray Gosack said increasing the sales tax by a penny would generate $20.1 million in additional revenue. Over a 12-year period, such an increase would come close to paying for capital improvements, but Directors Keith Lau and Mike Lorenz noted that a sewer rate increase would remain likely, with Lorenz calling it “unavoidable.” 

The floor will be open to the public at the March 17 meeting, after which City Directors will likely defer to a study session to discuss what final action to take. However, Gosack said, a vote could be held as early as the same night following the public hearing.

As for other business, Tuesday’s meeting was largely uneventful with only two main agenda items — the public hearing date being one — and the consent agenda, all of which passed. Item two was a unanimous decision to raise disinterment fees from $600 to $1,000 at Oak Cemetery. The Board had previously decided against, but after reevaluation by Oak Cemetery staff, it was determined that the process was too labor intensive and that the increase would be consistent with other cemeteries.

According to the International Cemetery, Cremation, and Funeral Association (ICCFA), disinterment is “the removal of the casket containing human remains from a grave.” Disinterment can be ordered by “certain public officials without the consent of the grave owner or the next of kin, for example, as part of a police investigation,” notes the website, and individuals or families “may also request dis-interment, if for example they would like to have the human remains relocated to another grave in the cemetery, to a mausoleum or possibly shipped to a country of birth.”

Oak Cemetery has conducted only two disinterments total in the last two years.