SPRINGDALE, Ark. — A city in Northwest Arkansas is gearing up to take on some major financial help for improving water service after Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders announced a $79 million wave of funding for water projects across the Natural State.
The announcement came on May 17 and includes multiple projects throughout 5COUNTRY, one of which is in Springdale.
The City of Springdale received a $50,000,000 loan from the Drinking Water State Revolving Loan Fund, with an expected customer base of 38,250 for the project.
Springdale Water Utilities Executive Director Heath Ward says this project will ensure growth in the area for decades to come.
"It was a $50 million low interest loan that Springdale water utilities just took out in order to facilitate the building of a 48-inch pipeline that will reach out to Beaver Water District's pump station that they're building," Ward said. "It will go around the west side of Springdale, ensuring that we have very healthy and robust growth for the next 40 or 50 years."
Kevin Inboden with the Beaver Water District says that not only will Springdale benefit from this, but other big cities in the area will too.
"Beaver Water District supplies the four customer cities Fayetteville, Springdale, Rogers and Bentonville drinking water, and we're working on a joint project with the four cities where Beaver Water District will construct a 60-inch diameter pipeline about seven and a half miles to northwest Springdale," Inboden said. "At that location we'll construct a football-size pump station which will house pumps for the four customer cities."
The Springdale pipeline will be the first to be built and the only one included in the $50 million loan. Ward says this will be huge for the city.
“That is going to be a high growth area as part of Springdale's feature overlay district, and we have got to ensure that we have adequate water and sewer over there for our community to continue to be competitive and grow in a very responsible way," Ward explained.
Ward says this pipeline will provide cleaner water for the entire city.
“At the end of the day, we want businesses to come here. We want people to be confident in their water supply. And when they turn on their faucet for clean and healthy water to come out of it and when it's time to get rid of waste that goes away and is properly taken care of," Ward said.
The construction for the Springdale Pipeline will start early next year with everything expected to be finished by January 2026.
Watch 5NEWS on YouTube.
Download the 5NEWS app on your smartphone:
Stream 5NEWS 24/7 on the 5+ app: How to watch the 5+ app on your streaming device
To report a typo or grammatical error, please email KFSMDigitalTeam@tegna.com and detail which story you're referring to.