Hot Springs board approves wastewater rate increases to fund $68M–$70M capital plan

The City of Hot Springs Board of Directors on Jan. 7 adopted an ordinance to raise wastewater rates to help fund a major wastewater capital-improvement program and the debt needed to pay for it. The measure passed by roll call vote 5–1, with Director Dudley Webb voting no.

City finance and utility consultants told the board the increases are intended to produce revenue sufficient to issue roughly $69.8 million of revenue bonds to pay for about $68 million in wastewater system improvements, including interceptor replacement, pump-station work and upgrades at the Davidson wastewater treatment plant.

Dan Jackson, vice president of Willdan Financial Services, said the plan combines modest multi-year base-charge increases with ongoing volumetric (per-1,000-gallon) adjustments. “This rate plan … will enable the city of Hot Springs to invest $68,000,000 in the future of its community,” Jackson said. He described a three-year sequence of $2.50 monthly increases to the base charge for the typical 5/8-inch residential meter, plus 3% annual volumetric increases thereafter.

Why it matters: the city is under multiple consent administrative orders from the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality requiring the repair of collection-system overflows and upgrades to its treatment plant. Local residents and public-health advocates told the board the work is urgent after documented raw-sewage overflows into Gulf of Creek and Spencer Bay.

During the public-comment period, Ellen Carpenter said the fee increases are necessary to complete work tied to the consent orders and to prevent untreated sewage discharges into recreational waterways. “I’m here to ask you to adopt ordinance number 02438 because proposed fee increases are needed to fund projects that will protect public health and safety and ensure the city’s…