Utilities Department

UTILITIES DEPARTMENT

Contact: David Jurgens, P. E., Utilities Director, 479-575-8330

The Utilities Department is composed of four major program groups: Water and Sewer Operations Division; Wastewater Treatment (CH2M Hill/OMI); Capital Projects/Wastewater System Improvement Program; and Solid Waste and Recycling. It is an integral component of the City’s organization and provides significant service to our customers. Unlike some municipalities, Fayetteville operates its own solid waste service with City employees and equipment. The Water and Wastewater utility is also an integral City function, without a separate utility board overseeing operations. This organization allows maximum customer service responsiveness, whereby the Utility Director answers through the Chief of Staff to the Mayor, and the City Council determines guiding ordinances, resolutions, and funding approval.

The Department provides service through 134.25 City and 37 CH2M Hill/OMI (contract) employees who staff key facilities 365 days a year, 24 hours a day. These employees are the front line in public safety and environmental protection, ensuring our water is safe to drink, wastewater is treated to one of the strictest standards in place within the nation, our landfill impact is minimized through maximized recycling, and our City is clean and well kept.  

WATER AND WASTEWATER UTILITY

The Water and Wastewater Utility provides regional drinking water and wastewater treatment services to Fayetteville and nearby areas.  The City of Fayetteville owns the entire water system (blue boundary in map) which provides retail service to customers in Fayetteville, Farmington, Goshen, Greenland, southern Johnson, parts of Washington County, and Wheeler, and wholesale contract service to Elkins, Mount Olive, Washington Water Authority and West Fork.  The City of Fayetteville owns the wastewater system (green boundary in map) that provides service to Fayetteville and southern Johnson.  It operates and maintains the wastewater systems in Farmington and Greenland under contract, while those cities own their respective systems. 

Fayetteville also provides wastewater service to Elkins under a wholesale contract. Drinking water is purchased from the Beaver Water District, with Fayetteville accepting ownership in its pipelines that begin at the water treatment plant in Lowell.  Over ten miles of 36” and 42” water transmission mains carry the water to Fayetteville.  The City’s average daily water consumption exceeds 14 million gallons per day, and 4,540,883,000 gallons of water was purchased in 2009. The City’s water system was first constructed in 1889, and consists of over 670 miles of pipe lines. 

The wastewater system collects and transports the wastewater to the Paul R. Noland Wastewater Treatment Facility on the south and east sides of town and the West Side Wastewater Treatment Facility on the north and west sides of town.  Treated water is returned to the White River or Goose Creek, a tributary of the Illinois River.  The Noland and West Side Wastewater Treatment Plants are permitted to treat at an average of 11.2 and 10 million gallons per day respectively.  The City’s wastewater system was first constructed in 1907, and consists of over 535 miles of pipe lines.

 SOLID WASTE AND RECYCLING

Contact: Carrol Hill; Solid Waste Director, 479-575-8398 

The Solid Waste and Recycling Division provides for the collection of commercial and residential waste for the City of Fayetteville. Composting and Recycling programs are operated jointly to divert the maximum amount of material from the landfill to productive use.

In 2009, the Solid Waste Division processed 12,518 tons for residential waste, 26,121 tons of commercial waste, 8,384 tons of commercial waste through the drop box program, sold 5,514 tons of recycling, and handled 5,498 tons of yard waste in the compost program. The Solid Waste and Recycling Division collects and processes approximately 54,000 tons of commercial and residential waste annually for the City. Composting and Recycling programs are provided in order to divert material from the landfill to productive use.

 The 57 person division is responsible for managing the City's Transfer Station, and Recycling and Composting Facilities, and the waste disposal contract.  This includes managing all customer service programs including bulk pickup, ward bulky waste clean ups, yard waste collection, residential recycling, commercial recycling programs, drop box programs, and commercial and residential waste collections.

Residential trash is successfully collected with a Pay-As-You-Throw (PAYT) automated residential cart program.  PAYT breaks with tradition by treating trash service similar to electricity, gas, and other utilities whereby residents’ fees are based on the amount of service provided. Households pay a graduated rate depending on the volume of trash they dispose.  The current rates are $8.75 for a 32 gallon cart (one 32 gallon bag equivalent), $13.35 for a 64 gallon cart, and $18.96 for a 96 gallon cart.  An extra bag fee of $6 per bag is charged for each visible bag sticking out over the rim of the cart or placed on the ground for pickup.  The extra bag charges are extremely important to help control excessive waste, maintain the fairness of the PAYT program, and promote the curbside recycling program.

The residential trash program provides waste collection to approximately 19,600 residences in Fayetteville which produced 12,518 tons of waste in 2009. Residential collection routes begin at either 4 a.m. or 5 a.m., depending upon the season, and are serviced Monday through Thursday.  It is very important to allow at least 3 feet around the cart for the automated collection; parked cars and other obstructions make collection very difficult.  Once collected, the waste is delivered to the City's transfer station adjacent to the Solid Waste and Recycling offices at 1560 S. Happy Hollow Road in southeast Fayetteville.  It is then transported to the Eco Vista Landfill in Tontitown for disposal.  The transfer station is open to the public from 8 a.m. - 2 p.m. Monday - Friday and 8 a.m. -10 a.m. Saturday. 

The Recycling program operates a source separated curbside program using 18-gallon plastic bins with lids for recycling collection, and a 24 hour community drop off located near the Solid Waste and Recycling facility on S. Happy Hollow Road.  Source separation means the materials are separated at the point of collection (curbside at homes and small businesses) and kept separated during processing and marketing.  Source separation results in significantly cleaner materials for recycling mills, and eliminates the proportionally large volume of material delivered to landfills out of traditional, combined collection recycling processes.  The materials collected in the program are  aluminum cans, plastic bottles #1 (polyethylene terephthalate- PET) and plastic bottles #2 (high density polyethylene- HDPE ), steel cans, glass beverage containers (green, clear and brown),  newspaper, mixed paper, cardboard and chipboard.  A new Recycling Drop Off and Education Center, located on Broyles Avenue south of Persimmon Road, is scheduled to open in 2011. 

According to a 2008 recycling study performed by R. W. Beck, Fayetteville collects an average of 587 pounds of recycled material per home annually.  The report also stated that roughly 47.8% of Fayetteville’s residential waste is either recycled or composted, including material generated from the curb-sort, drop-off, and composting programs.  Fifty-six percent of our homes participate in the curb-side recycling program.  Interestingly, volumes collected reflect the economic situation and society’s evolution.  For example, the volume of newspaper recycled has dropped almost in half in the last two years.  In December 2009, the recycling program expanded services to commercial customers by offering collection of paper in dumpsters similar to the cardboard recycling program and also allowed businesses to participate in the curbside program for a cost of $5.88 which was identified as the program cost per household in the Beck study. As of October 2010, there are 163 businesses signed up for the curbside program.

The yardwaste program collects 5,000 tons of grass, leaves and brush annually. The yardwaste is processed into two different products: mulch and compost. Mulch is made from ground up trees; compost is ground up leaves and grass and that goes through a biological process to become compost. The programs are very popular with residents

 Water/Sewer Operations Division

Contact: William Winn, Operations Manager, 479-575-8386 

The Water and Sewer Operations Division operates and maintains the water storage and distribution system, and the wastewater collection system.  Water supply facilities include 670 miles of water main, 3,750 fire hydrants, 14 water storage tanks (with a new elevated tank under construction on Canterbury Street), ten water pumping stations and 40,650 customer services.  Wastewater facilities include 535 miles of sewer lines, 12,146 manholes and 34,355 customer connections.  Operation, maintenance and replacement functions are accomplished with a total staffing of 71 persons.

Key functions of this program include the maintenance of the infrastructure systems including: installing new service connections; repairing pipe failures/blockages; replacing and rehabilitating pipes; maintaining water tanks and pumps; and coordination of capital improvements/ system expansions.  The growing age of the core infrastructure system combined with the increasing customer demands require development of a long range master plan and capital improvement program to plan and forecast needs. 

The meter operations division supports the business functions of the utility operations and manages the backflow prevention program.  This team executes the monthly reading of residential, commercial and industrial water meters, the data being electronically recorded and entered into the utility billing system. This function is tightly scheduled and closely coordinated with the business office to sustain regular billing intervals for customers.  This work group also checks readings on high/low consumption, installs new customer meters, performs delinquent account cutoffs, schedules reconnections, test and repair meters and provide numerous customer services.  The backflow prevention aspect of this division oversees a program designed to prevent the contamination of the water system by backflow from certain categories of water customers. 

With a 19 person staff, this team coordinates reading and operating more than 39,532 meters each month including roughly 6,900 meter disconnects per year. Continuing technological advancements in this field, such as radio meter reading equipment and the like, are offering opportunities for further efficiency and effectiveness.  

Wastewater Treatment Division

Contact:  Lynn Hyke, Construction Manager, 479-718-7670; Duyen Tran, CH2M Hill-OMI Project Manager, 479-443-3292 

The City’s wastewater treatment plant and pump station operations and maintenance activities are provided under contract by CH2M Hill-Operations Management International, Inc. (OMI). OMI responsibilities include the operations and maintenance of the Paul R. Noland Wastewater Treatment Plant (11.2 million gallon per day), the West Side Wastewater Treatment Plant (10 million gallon per day), laboratory operations, permit compliance and reporting, industrial pretreatment program management, operation/ maintenance/repair of 38 wastewater pump stations, operation of a supervisory control and data acquisition system (SCADA) to monitor remote system conditions of the 38 wastewater pump stations and 31 water sites, maintenance of the flow monitoring devices and the related SCADA equipment for the collection system, operation of the 670 acre land application site which includes nutrient mitigation/hay harvesting and marketing, and maintenance/mitigation of the 43.7 acre wet land adjacent to the West Side Wastewater Treatment Plant.  In early 2011, OMI will begin drying biosolids at the Noland land application site, a new process which will allow us to stop hauling biosolids to landfills.

This contract is renewed on an annual basis, with the contract’s term ending December 31, 2014. The contract was re-bid in September 2009; CH2M Hill-OMI was awarded the contract after competing against two other firms. The 2010 contract is for $6,858,886. Under the contract terms, budget under runs by OMI are divided on the basis of 87.5% returned to City and 12.5% provided to OMI, creating cost savings incentive to both parties. 

During the term of this agreement, OMI has consistently maintained the cost below target values.  OMI employs 37 full time employee positions to meet contract requirements. 

Capital Projects/Wastewater System Improvement Project Division

Contact: David Jurgens, Project Manager; Lynn Hyke, Construction Manager, 479-718-7670 

This team manages solid waste, water, and wastewater capital projects including the largest project ever undertaken by the City of Fayetteville.  The Wastewater System Improvement Project (WSIP) is a system wide project that significantly increases the capacity of the City of Fayetteville’s wastewater system.  The project addressed capacity shortfalls in the wastewater collection and treatment systems; it is expected to treat the wastewater for 115,000 people. 

Wastewater System Improvement Project.  The WSIP increases the City’s wastewater treatment capacity from 12.6 to 21.4 million gallons per day, and has significantly reduced the number of sewer system overflows due to rain and ground water entering the system.  It improves odor control system wide.  The new transmission pipelines are designed to carry flows for a full 100+ years of growth. The West Side Wastewater Treatment Plant began treating wastewater on May 29, 2008. The east side work (Noland WWTP and pipe lines leading thereto) is complete as well.  Major WSIP construction elements include:

(1) Constructing a new West Side Wastewater Treatment Plant ($62.7 million including a �� mile water main extension, a 25.5 acre constructed wetlands, and adjacent work).

(2) Constructing 23.6 miles of new or replacement sewer transmission pipes and 3 pump stations in the north and west areas of the City to carry the wastewater to the new West Side WWTP ($39.9 million).

(3) Upgrading the existing Noland WWTP on the east side of town including a new biosolids processing facility ($25.0 million).

(4)  Constructing 9.3 miles of new or replacement sewer transmission pipes and replacing, modifying, or upgrading six pump stations in the south and east areas of the City to better carry the wastewater to the Noland WWTP ($18.2 million).

(5) The project also involves a great deal of required related work including acquisition of over 163 easements for the pipelines; extensive wetlands and stormwater training, construction, and inspection; engineering design and construction inspection for all construction; and all permitting and coordination with the USEPA, the Corps of Engineers, Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality, the Arkansas Natural Resources Commission, the Arkansas Department of Health, the Beaver Water District, various Oklahoma agencies, and others ($32.9 million).

(6) A lift station and approximately four miles of associated pipe line work to service Farmington and the Fayetteville area immediately east of Farmington ($5.0 million provided by Farmington and $2.0 million provided by Fayetteville). 

The project is funded through a combination of a $42 million sales tax bond issue approved in September 2006, a $125 million sales tax bond issue approved in November 2001, system revenues, impact fees, and land sales at the West Side WWTP site 

Other Capital Projects.  This team also completes design, construction and project management on numerous non-WSIP projects including but not limited to the following: Canterbury water storage tank; West Side Recycling drop off site; sanitary sewer rehabilitation; water and sewer relocations due to Highway Department and/or City street improvements; 36” water line along Township and Highway 265; managing cellular tower contracts; and various other water, sewer, and solid waste capital projects.  In 2010, the team completed design work on projects with a construction cost of over $9,000,000.  This team also developed the requests for proposals and contracts for the emergency cleanup for the 2009 ice storm.

Utilities Department public information updates on capital projects are published every two weeks, and are accessible on the City’s web site at www.accessfayetteville.org.