Untreated Wastewater Overflows Onto Golf Course

ADEQ ISSUES EMERGENCY ORDER TO FACILITY TO ‘CEASE AND DESIST’

This photo taken by Matt Holden, field inspector with Arkansas Department Environmental Quality, shows untreated wastewater overflowing from the aeration cell of Washington County Property Improvement District No. 5 onto a golf path and the golf course at Valley View. The improvement district is the private sanitary waste treatment and disposal system that serves Valley View subdivision.
This photo taken by Matt Holden, field inspector with Arkansas Department Environmental Quality, shows untreated wastewater overflowing from the aeration cell of Washington County Property Improvement District No. 5 onto a golf path and the golf course at Valley View. The improvement district is the private sanitary waste treatment and disposal system that serves Valley View subdivision.

FARMINGTON -- Untreated wastewater has been overflowing onto Valley View golf course, according to inspection reports on the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality website.

The overflow has been coming from the aeration cell associated with Washington County Property Improvement District No. 5, the private sanitary waste treatment and disposal system that serves Valley View subdivision.

Becky Keogh, ADEQ director, issued an emergency order April 1 to Joe Stewart, general manager of the wastewater system, that the facility shall "immediately cease and desist" all unpermitted discharges and remediate the area impacted by the untreated wastewater discharges.

Despite repeated efforts, Stewart could not be reached for comment to the Enterprise-Leader.

The emergency order requires District No. 5 to provide evidence, including photos, to ADEQ within five calendar days that the overflow has stopped and the area been remediated.

A Findings of Fact in the emergency order shows a wastewater permit was issued to the improvement district Jan. 31, 2011, and is set to expire Jan. 31, 2016. The facility is located 100 feet from an unnamed tributary of the Illinois River.

On March 16, a field inspector with ADEQ Water Division conducted an inspection at the facility and noted an unpermitted discharge of untreated wastewater as a result of an overflow of the aeration cell. An aeration cell is a pond with an aerator in it. Aeration is the process by which air is circulated through, mixed with or dissolved in the liquid in the pond.

The inspector also noted the facility's waste disposal system was

General News on 04/08/2015