Commission, council to look for sewer woes fix

EL DORADO — The city El Dorado Water Utilities Commission will join the city council in a meeting next month to discuss a problem that could cost city residents up to $10 million.

The city has numerous community service lines — sewer lines that connect a number of houses to the city’s main sewer lines — and these lines are spread out across numerous properties and under structures, often connecting several properties indirectly to the city sewer lines.

When there is a problem with one of the community service lines, the repair can be expensive, not only for the city utilities, but for the homeowner as well.

“We will hold a special meeting with the City Council at noon on March 7, right here in City Hall,” water utilities general manager Mark Smith told the commissioners on Wednesday. “We need to begin addressing this problem, which dates back to the 1940s or 50s.”

Smith described the community service lines as “a spider web” of pipes. Often, the city is does not know the location of the community service lines, nor do city workers know who all is hooked into any one line.

Smith estimated that there are about 2,000 homes or businesses affected by the community service lines. When one of the community service lines breaks, it become an expensive problem for the homeowner and the city.

Smith clarified some points about the community service line near College and Mount Holly.

"EWU has discussed helping with this problem such as perhaps donating materials for a new waste water main but no decision has been made. All community service lines are privately owned and EWU has never taken responsibility for any of them," he said. "A customer has to reach the waste water main (sewer) with their private waste water line and at that point EWU takes responsibility."

Still, repairing those homes and sewer lines will be expensive.

“If you estimate that it costs $5,000 per house to fix, and there are 2,000 homes, then we are looking at a $10 million fix,” Smith said. “I can’t prove that number is correct, but it is a good ball park figure.”

The city is currently dealing with a community service line issue north of Holly Street which involves, among other structures, Ward Veterinary Clinic and the Liberty Baptist Association Thrift Store, where the city is planning on replacing 200 feet of pipe at an approximate cost of $20,500.

Once the replacement is done, the expense of connecting to the city’s newly replaced sewer line falls upon the property owners.

Smith estimated the cost per property would be about $5,000 each to connect to the new sewer line.

“The problem is, a lot of these are in the poorer part of town,” Smith said, “where people probably couldn’t afford to fix it if they had to.”

“I’ve never lived anywhere that you didn’t build homes where they went to the street to connect,” said Dr. Steven Ward, owner of Ward Veterinary Clinic. “I think realtors in this town should sell property with a warning that this can happen. They should warn everyone that they might have to pay thousands for sewer lines.”

Among possible fixes the commissioners and the aldermen will consider is the availability of economic development funds to begin replacing the community service lines or repairing them.

“We are certainly sympathetic with this problem, and this is the time to take action,” said commission chairman Peter Parks.

Parks asked if El Dorado Works funds might not be available to help with the community service line issue since some of those funds are earmarked for infrastructure repairs.

“That’s why we’re meeting with the council on March 7, to look for solutions,” Smith said.

Randal Curtman is the managing editor of the El Dorado News-Times and may be reached at 870-862-6611 or by email at [email protected].

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