By Tia Lyons
Staff Writer
EL DORADO — The Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality approved some changes to the discharge permit for the multiuser wastewater pipeline to the Ouachita River.
John Peppers, treatment superintendent for the El Dorado Water Utilities, said the ADEQ dropped the frequency requirement for samples that are collected and tested from the daily effluent that travels through the nearly 30-mile pipeline.
During a recent report in which Peppers said the pipeline is working fine, he announced that ADEQ dropped the requirement from five times a week to three times a week at the Roberson Road sampling station.
The station is the site where the effluent from the four pipeline users converges before traveling the last leg to the discharge point in the Ouachita River.
Additionally, samples no longer have to be collected at the river outfall site, Peppers said.
The line is owned by the water utilities, who jointly uses it with three industry partners — Lion Oil, El Dorado Chemical and Great Lakes Solutions.
The wastewater line has been in operation since 2013. Each day, it ferries four to five million gallons of treated wastewater from its four users to the Ouachita River.
It was built with the capacity to handle 20 million gallons a day, a portion of the engineering design that El Dorado Water and Sewer Commissioners have said was intended to keep future industrial growth in mind.
The pipeline empties into the river 1.5 miles downstream from the H.K. Thatcher Lock and Dam.
The pipeline is owned and operated by the city. The EWU covers 60 percent of operation and maintenance costs, and the three industries kick in 40 percent.
The breakdown was calculated based on the amount of wastewater the users contribute to the pipeline. The EWU discharges effluent from its north and south wastewater treatment plants.
Peppers said ADEQ signed off on the permit changes in late December.
Eliminating the requirement to sample at the outfall point will provide relief to the EWU in a number of ways, including cost-savings for time, labor and testing, he explained.
Peppers also said that crews often had difficulty reaching the discharge site to collect samples at the river because some points in the area are impassable due to heavy flooding that is caused by rain.
“The river outfall
sampling where all of the lines come together, There’s no reason to sample at the river because nothing else is getting into the line. It didn’t make much sense,” Peppers said. “It makes it easier for record-keeping.”
The change will not affect the ability of the EWU to detect a problem and immediately shut down the pipeline should an incident occur.
Tia Lyons may be contacted at 870-862-6611 or by email at tlyons@ eldoradonews.com.