By Rob Moritz
Arkansas News Bureau

LITTLE ROCK — Small towns and communities across Arkansas have aging water and sewer systems in desperate need of repairs but no money to pay for them.

Two recent federal Environmental Protection Agency studies concluded it would take about $5 billion to rehabilitate or replace the old and broken water systems in the state and another $400 million to repair and upgrade the sewer systems.

“We’re talking big bucks,” said Earl Smith, chief of the water resources division of the Arkansas Natural Resources Commission. “We certainly see it as a critical issue that’s looming out there.”

In April, word that the commission would receive $50 million in federal stimulus funds for water and sewer projects drew a flood of applications for projects totaling $550 million.

“We had 11 times more requests (than money),” said ANRC finance manager Dave Fenter, adding that nearly 188 cities or systems requested funding.

Ultimately, $25 million was divided among six of the proposed water projects and eight sewer projects divided the other $25 million.

The awards were based not only on need, but also on how fast the projects could be “shovel ready,” Smith said.

The majority of the $500 million in unfunded requests came from small, rural towns that are struggling economically and losing population as well in an erosion of the tax base necessary to pay for upkeep and maintenance of water and sewer systems that eventually leak, breakdown and go unrepaired, he said.

State and federal loan programs are available, but many communities no longer have the customer base to repay the loans, Smith said.

Because many of the smaller systems have struggled to make payments, the Community Development Block Program has set a limit for applicants at no less than 300 customers, Fenter said.

The state Department of Health permits 1,111 water systems in the state and the Department of Environmental Quality permits 366 municipal sewer systems.

Sen. Jim Luker, D-Wynne, said most of the small towns and communities in his eastern Arkansas district are having problems with their water and sewer systems but can’t afford repairs. Some small sewer systems have pumps that routinely fail and workers are forced to drain the systems of raw sewage into nearby fields, the senator said.

“All these small declining population East Arkansas towns are faced with this situation,” Luker said. “The systems are designed to last 30 to 40 years. That useful life is now, in many instances, coming to an end just from the natural course of things and that’s going to require substantial reinvestment to rehabilitate them as well and update and modernize them.”

Luker rattled off some of the systems in his district alone — Sunset, Jericho, Turrell, Hunter, Holly Grove and Clarenden — that are struggling with broken equipment and leaking lines. If nothing is done, he said, citizens served by those facilities could be in big trouble.

One of the exceptions is Cotton Plant in Woodruff County, a town of 960 people with a sewer system that is at least 30 years old and a water well system that is more than 50 years old.

“We’re blessed,” Cotton Plant Mayor Ronnie Conley said, after the town received $1.55 million to repair its water system and lines.

Cotton Plant also is to begin a $280,000 sewer rehabilitation project with funding from an $180,000 federal grant and a $100,000 federal loan. The loan is to be repaid over 40 years.

“Cities all over the region are having problems like we are,” Conley said. “The Delta region is struggling.”

Cotton Plant’s unemployment rate is about 18 percent, and in many parts of the region the jobless rate is 20 percent or higher, he said.

“This area has been a very bad area,” he said, adding that along with high unemployment, the high school drop out rate is more than 50 percent.

While the sign at the entrance to the small town says its population is 960, Conley thinks it’s probably dropped since the last census.

“That’s probably dropped some because it’s hard to retain our young people. It’s hard to retain anyone, I would think, when there are such few jobs here,” he said.

Also receiving stimulus funds to repair an aging system is the city of Newport.

“Were going to replace several pumps, piping and replace a sewer curtain with an earthen levy,” said Mayor David Stewart.

Newport is to receive about $2.1 million.

“Our system was designed to last 20 years and it’s more than 20 years old and full of sludge,” he said.

Smith said the Natural Resources Commission is attempting to educate lawmakers on the looming problem and seeking $4 million in funding so a new statewide water plan can be drawn.

Lawmakers were briefed recently during a meeting in Rogers.

“I really think this next decade is going to bring some real extreme, critical decisions on what the state is going to do on the management of water resources,” Smith said.