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(501) 776-5900 |
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The Benton Utilities Wastewater Collections Department is the sanitary sewer provider for the City of Benton. You might ask “What is the difference between water and wastewater?” Water refers to potable water or water that is fit to drink, it comes from the tap and is also used for cooking, personal hygiene as well as commercial operations. Wastewater is the end result of drinking water, it is the wastewater released after doing laundry, washing dishes, cooking, bathing, etc. The responsibilities of this dept. are to maintain all wastewater lines and liftstations throughout the City of Benton. These lines and liftstations keep the flow sustained to the Benton Utilities Wastewater Treatment Plant where wastewater is treated and released into the environment after quality standards are met set forth by the Arkansas Dept. of Environmental Quality (ADEQ) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
Assisting Mr. Wilson with the daily activities are a lead line maintenance man, a four man line crew and a four man liftstation crew. These personnel bring over 111 years of experience to this department carrying out the day to day activities under the direction of its manager. Liftstations or Pumpstations – the pump that pushes wastewater through a tight line normally from a low area to a high area where it will feed from that point via gravity through a sewer main. 140 liftstations are maintained by the liftstation crew 365 days a year; they do daily maintenance on many of them 7 days a week.
Our department is required by law to respond to the dig site within two business days and mark the ground above our lines in green paint. Our lines include the mains, we are not responsible for customer’s service lines and do not locate them.
Work in Progress Manhole Rehab - Beyond being environmentally hazardous, sanitary sewer overflows are a constant headache for many managers. Much time is spent on inspecting and repairing the main lines, but the manholes can easily be forgotten. Manholes can be a major source of infiltration; reports have shown that manholes and other underground structures can account for 30 to 50 percent of a system's infiltration. This infiltration can occur at manhole rings, through loose mortar and precast joints and around mainline or stub-out connections. Fallen bricks and mortar can block the sewer flow, and may eventually lead to collapse, seriously endangering the surface and surrounding environment. Manholes can be rehabilitated and pass a vacuum test for a fraction of the cost of replacing it. As you can see, manholes form one of the important foundation blocks for our wastewater collection system. They should be accessible and maintained in good condition. An effective wastewater system prevents manholes from deteriorating to the point where infiltration or inflows enter sewers, this causes increased costs at the wastewater treatment plants. Inflow & Infiltration (I & I) Problems – As part of the consent order from the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality, Benton Utilities was required to start eliminating I & I in the sewer collection system. This department started doing smoke testing in 2005 to locate any leaks or I & I that may exist in both mains and service on our system.
To the left – When smoke testing, the testing personnel can verify that the test is working properly by opening clean-outs next to residences. Pipe bursting is a process of inserting a new line into an existing pipe which expands busting the old line replacing it with the new one. Annually, this dept. completes pipe bursting where I & I is coming in. Last year, approximately two miles of sewer collection lines was pipe bursted to eliminate I & I. |
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Benton
Utilities Wastewater Collection Department
Leon Wilson is the manager of the Benton Utilities Wastewater Collection
Department, he has been employed in this department since 1980 and serving
as manager since 1999. He is responsible for overseeing the daily
activities of this department under the direction of the Benton Utilities
General Manager.
Locates - Locates are required by Arkansas Law anytime digging will be
done with any mechanized equipment for whatever reason. When a contractor
or homeowner digs within the confines of our service area, they are
required to call in a dig ticket to Arkansas One-Call and to mark the dig
site with white paint. The Arkansas One-Call Center sends us a ticket via
e-mail notifying us of the locate request.
Line Maintenance: Our crew does both periodic line maintenance and service
call line maintenance to keep all lines free from blockages. When doing
maintenance, our department uses a Jet-Vac truck to accomplish it. These
trucks have both pumping and jetting capabilities. Jet-Vacs are used in
vacuum cleaning of lift stations, sewer lines, and catch basins where
heavy grit, sediment, sludge and other semi-solid and wet solid removal is
needed. This machine is also used for low pressure, high water volume
cleaning of pipes. The hydraulically driven dumping debris body is ideal
for dumping solids.
Smoke Testing – This year, we will also be performing smoke testing in
sewer lines to determine where we have problems so that we can either
perform pipe bursting on these lines or replace the lines to eliminate I &
I. The purpose of this smoke testing is to locate any leaks or inflow and
infiltration that may exist in both the main and customer service lines in
this area.
