El Dorado News-Times 4/24/12

Ouachita River discourse continues to flow
Allison Gatlin, El Dorado News Times, 4.24.12 P1, [email protected]
Allison Gatlin/News Times
River tour: Rob Reynolds, of the Union County Water Conservation Board, explains the
intricacies of the Ouachita River intake to representatives of U.S. Sen. John Boozmanʼs office and
State Rep. Matthew Shepherd. The tour comprised of a lunch briefing, a trip to the intake valve
and a visit to the clarification facility on Monday.
Before public intervention less than a decade ago, the future of the Sparta Aquifer was
mixed with trepidation that industrial overuse in the 1920s would have entirely lapped up
one of the region’s most important natural resources, representatives of U.S. Sen. John
Boozman’s office and State Rep. Matthew Shepherd were told on Monday.
The decline was a slow one over the next 80 to 90 years, said Rob Reynolds, president of
the Union County Water Conservation Board.
"There is nothing more refreshing than a slightly-mineralized Sparta water at 58 degrees,"
he said. "Nothing tastes better." "But it was our only aquifer and we were pumping it
faster than it could be revitalized naturally," he added.
Enter what would become the water conservation board — a coalition of local public
officials and economic developers who came together to look for a solution to the rapid
deterioration of the Sparta.
The answer ultimately presented itself in a partnership with what is now known as Union
Power Partners which opted on Union County as the ideal place to build a power plant
within necessary proximity of an electrical grid, readily available natural gas for fuel and
clean water.
With the location in mind, Union Power Partners targeted the Ouachita River as the most
logical source of water for operations, Reynolds said.
"Nobody had ever utilized Ouachita River water and there was the thought that it was not
of good quality but that was a mistake of perception," he said. "If you’re driving over the
bridge and look down, you see brown but what you’re seeing is not the river, it’s the
bottom." Following negotiations with local officials, Union Power Partners began
construction on what would become an intake coming out of the Ouachita River and
clarification facility that would double the capacity of the water plant with only a 30
percent increase in cost.
Union Power Partners took on 50 percent the cost of the new facility with the other half
plus a 30 percent increase in cost taken upon by Union County voters who at the time
ushered in a 1-cent sales tax, Reynolds said.
The county’s portion of the power plant was paid off well ahead of the tax’s sunset in
only three and a half years, said Sherrel Johnson, Union County Water Conservation
Board grants administrator.
Utilizing the double capacity, the water filtered through the Ouachita River intake and the
clarification facility now provides industrial water to the area’s three biggest users —
Great Lakes Solutions, El Dorado Chemical and Lion Oil Co. — at a rate of 73 cents per
1,000 gallons as opposed to the former free price tag associated with pumping from the
Sparta, Reynolds said. Recently, Mystic Creek Golf Course was added to the pipeline and
had begun using Ouachita River water for irrigation, he said.
In the years since Union County was designated as one of the first critical groundwater
areas, the Sparta Aquifer has measurably recovered, a determination made based on
measurements of 28 wells throughout Southern Arkansas and Northern Louisiana, the
principle area under which the groundwater lies, Reynolds said.
He gives much of the credit to the recovery process to Union Power Partners. "This is
why we’re both economically and physically relying on the Ouachita River as a source
for industrial means," he said. "Without it we would still be pumping 100 percent Sparta
Aquifer." He added, "In some places they have more than one aquifer, but nature was
kind to us to give us one high-quality aquifer and that’s the one we’ve got to take care
of."