Sale of Fort Smith water moving forward

Fort SmithNews on the Wire

by The City Wire staff ([email protected]) October 12, 2009 9:52 am 122 views 

Plans are moving forward that would see the city of Fort Smith sell 340,000 gallons of water a day to Charleston, Lavaca and the River South Water Users Association. The usage could increase to 490,000 gallons a day by the 20th year of the contract.

Because Fort Smith already sells water to Lavaca, the net new water sales a day comes to 70,000 gallons a day. The net water sales would generate a little more than $60,000 annually.

Fort Smith board of directors approved a resolution in October 2008 to sell water to the Franklin Sebastian Public Water Authority (FSPWA). The board also asked for a one-year report and a study of the future water supply from Lake Fort Smith. City Directors Bill Maddox and Kevin Settle, who initially opposed selling water out of fear Fort Smith would run out, requested the water supply report.

The FSPWA sent the city a report on Oct. 9 showing several key steps accomplished in building the infrastructure to connect to city of Fort Smith water pipes. The steps include conditional approval of a facilities plan and environmental report from the Arkansas Natural Resources Commission (ARNC), ongoing right-of-way acquisition and work toward an application for $6 million in federal stimulus dollars. The FSPWA has been offered $12 million in funding from the ARNC, with half of the amount coming from low-interest loans and general obligation bond funds. The funding will be used to build a transmission line and pump stations from Fort Smith to Charleston along Arkansas 22.

“The Franklin and Sebastian Water (Association) has reached the point where it’s ready to enter into a water agreement with Fort Smith,” Ray Gosack, deputy Fort Smith city administrator, noted in a memo. “The staff will supply the association with a proposed contract. When preparation of the contract is complete, the contract will be brought to the board of directors for approval.”

Fort Smith directors will review the status of the planned water sale at their Tuesday (Oct. 13) study session.

The city’s water supply is healthy, according to a July 2009 report prepared by Kansas City, Mo.-based Burns & McDonnell Engineering Co. The report shows that Lake Fort Smith will meet the region’s water needs to 2060 — a full decade longer than expected when the $200 million Lake Fort Smith expansion was approved in the late 1990s. The lake expansion, completed in late 2006, increased water storage from about 8.4 billion gallons to almost 28 billion gallons, according to city info.