ALICIA WATERWORKS

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Client:

The City of Alicia is a small town with a population of 119 people located in Lawrence County, Arkansas.

Alicia Waterworks is a public water and wastewater utility owned by the City of Alicia serving the entire city and a few additional customer located outside of the city limits. The water utility purchases 100% of its water from the North East Arkansas Public Water Authority and then redistributes the water through its own distribution network consisting of one elevated tank, distribution piping and approximately 65 individually metered connections. The wastewater utility consists of primary treatment tanks located at each home, a collection piping network, five pump station and a sand bed filtration system followed by a disinfection tank.

Challenges:

The city was faced with the all to often issue that many small towns facing today, finding a qualified licensed operator who was willing to take on a small system for a price they could afford. Service line leaks were prevalent and water loss was high. The city was facing sizable fines imposed by the Arkansas Department of Health and was scheduled for a hearing in front of the Board of Health due to a series of bad bacteriological samples.

Solution:

The City of Alicia signed a three year agreement with ClearWater to provide operations and maintenance services to the water and wastewater systems to include, water distribution management, wastewater collection management, meter reading, wastewater treatment and repair work completed on a per occurrence basis. ClearWater was able to  offer the services of a class IV water distribution operator and a class III wastewater licensed operator to the community. ClearWater instituted a policy of replacing each service line as leaks occurred rather than patching the existing service tubing.The Board of Health issued a suspension of all fines provided that no bad samples were submitted for a period of one year. 

Water loss went down to an acceptable level, bacteriological samples all tested to be safe, and repeat water leak repairs are all but nonexistent. The three year contract has now, as of 2020 turned into almost 9 years and the city elected to hire ClearWater to provide billing and collection services as well.