Agency overview | |
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Formed | 1957 |
Headquarters | 301 N. Primrose Road Lowell, AR 72745 |
Agency executive |
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Website | http://www.bwdh2o.org/ |
Beaver Water District (BWD) is a water district created in 1957 as a quasi-governmental agency to provide treated drinking water to the communities of Northwest Arkansas. The district's source is Beaver Lake, an impoundment of the White River created by Beaver Dam. The district wholesales treated potable water to Bentonville, Fayetteville, Rogers and Springdale, who then re-sell the water to their residential/commercial customers and smaller nearby communities.
Beaver Water District is governed by its board of directors. The elected six-member board contains three members each from Benton and Washington counties. The board meets monthly at the district's office in Lowell.
BWD sells water wholesale to the four largest communities in NWA, who utilize their own distribution systems to deliver water to residential and commercial customers. All four communities also resell to smaller communities within their service area that utilize distribution systems under their jurisdiction. For example, Springdale Water Utilities owns and maintains water mains in Johnson.
In 2003, residents near Monte Ne filed a complaint with the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ) that alleged BWD was polluting the bay with untreated process water from filter backwashing. Aluminum sulfate (alum), used as a flocculation agent in drinking water treatment, was alleged to be 10 feet (3.0 m) deep in places and was lining the limestone channels of the cove. ADEQ concluded that aluminum levels were elevated and could be toxic to aquatic biota, but was not toxic to humans. Soil samples indicated elevated levels of arsenic, barium, cadmium, chromium, lead, and mercury. BWD was ordered to pay a $9,000 fine for eight violations of its NPDES permit under the Clean Water Act. [1]
Washington County is a regional economic, educational, and cultural hub in the Northwest Arkansas region. Created as Arkansas's 17th county on November 30, 1848, Washington County has 13 incorporated municipalities, including Fayetteville, the county seat, and Springdale. The county is also the site of small towns, bedroom communities, and unincorporated places. The county is named for George Washington, the first President of the United States
Benton County is located in the northwestern corner of the U.S. state of Arkansas. As of the 2010 census, the population was 221,339, making it the second-most populous county in Arkansas. The county seat is Bentonville. The county was formed on September 30, 1836 and was named after Thomas Hart Benton, a U.S. Senator from Missouri. In 2012, Benton County voters elected to make the county wet, or a non-alcohol prohibition location. Benton County is part of the Northwest Arkansas region.
Cave Springs is a city in Benton County, Arkansas, United States. The population was 1,729 at the 2010 census, up from 1,103 in 2000. It is part of the Fayetteville–Springdale–Rogers, AR-MO Metropolitan Statistical Area.
Lowell is a city in Benton County, Arkansas, United States. Located within the Ozarks, first settlement was along Old Wire Road in the 1840s, and although destroyed during the Civil War, the community was reestablished by J. R. McClure and thrived when the St. Louis–San Francisco Railway came through the area in the 1880s. Today, the city is a growing bedroom community within the rapidly growing Northwest Arkansas region. Lowell is also home to the headquarters of trucking company J.B. Hunt. Lowell's population was 7,327 at the 2010 census, an increase of 46% since 2000.
Rogers is a city in Benton County, Arkansas, United States. Located in the Ozarks, it is part of the Northwest Arkansas region, one of the fastest growing metro areas in the country. Rogers was the location of the first Walmart store, whose corporate headquarters is located in neighboring Bentonville. Daisy Outdoor Products, known for its air rifles, has both its headquarters and its Airgun Museum in Rogers.
Siloam Springs is a city in Benton County, Arkansas, United States. The city shares a border on the Arkansas-Oklahoma state line with the city of West Siloam Springs, Oklahoma, which is within the Cherokee Nation territory. The town was founded in 1882 and was characterized by the purported healing powers of the spring water feeding Sager Creek and trading with nearby Native American tribes. John Brown University (JBU) was founded in 1919 as a private, interdenominational, Christian liberal arts college in the city. Today, Siloam Springs is known for its efforts to preserve and revitalize the city's historic downtown and as a promoter of the arts via Sager Creek Arts Center and the JBU art gallery. The community is located on the western edge of the growing Northwest Arkansas metropolitan area and has had a population increase of 47% to 15,039 between the 2000 and 2010 censuses.
Springdale is the fourth-largest city in Arkansas, United States. It is located in both Washington and Benton counties in Northwest Arkansas. Located on the Springfield Plateau deep in the Ozark Mountains, Springdale has long been an important industrial city for the region. In addition to several trucking companies, the city is home to the world headquarters of Tyson Foods, the world's largest meat producing company. Originally named Shiloh, the city changed its name to Springdale when applying for a post office in 1872. The four-county Northwest Arkansas Metropolitan Statistical Area is ranked 109th in terms of population in the United States with 463,204 in 2010 according to the United States Census Bureau. The city had a population of 69,797 at the 2010 Census.
Fayetteville is the third-largest city in Arkansas and county seat of Washington County. The city is on the outskirts of the Boston Mountains, deep within the Ozarks. Known as Washington until 1829, the city was named after Fayetteville, Tennessee, from which many of the settlers had come. It was incorporated on November 3, 1836 and was rechartered in 1867. The four-county Northwest Arkansas Metropolitan Statistical Area is ranked 105th in terms of population in the United States with 463,204 in 2010 according to the United States Census Bureau. The city had a population of 73,580 at the 2010 Census.
Johnson is a city in Washington County, Arkansas, United States. The community is located on the Springfield Plateau deep in the Ozark Mountains and is surrounded by valleys and natural springs. Early settlers took advantage of these natural features and formed an economy based on mining lime, the Johnson Mill and trout. Although a post office was opened in the community in 1887, Johnson did not incorporate until it required the development of a city government to provide utility services in 1961. Located between Fayetteville and Springdale in the heart of the rapidly growing Northwest Arkansas metropolitan statistical area, Johnson has been experiencing a population and building boom in recent years, as indicated by a 46% growth in population between the 2000 and 2010 censuses.
Area code 479 is a telephone area code in the North American Numbering Plan (NANP) for thirteen counties in the northwestern part of the U.S. state of Arkansas. The numbering plan area (NPA) includes the cities of Bentonville, Fort Smith, Fayetteville, Rogers, Siloam Springs and Springdale. It was created on January 19, 2002 in a split from area code 501.
The Arkansas Activities Association (AAA) is the primary sanctioning body for high school sports in state of Arkansas. AAA is a member association of the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFSHSA). Every public secondary school in Arkansas is a de jure member of the AAA, and most private schools, save for a few schools in the delta that belong to the Mississippi Private Schools Association, are included in membership.
A total of fourteen special routes of U.S. Route 71 exist.
The Four State Area or Quad State Area, is the area where the states of Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri, and Oklahoma almost touch: Arkansas and Kansas have no boundary. The Tulsa, Oklahoma; Joplin, Missouri; and Fayetteville-Springdale-Rogers, Arkansas metropolitan areas are located within the region. Notable cities and towns in the area are Tulsa and Miami, Oklahoma; Pittsburg, Kansas; Joplin, Springfield, and Monett, Missouri; and Fayetteville, Springdale, Rogers, and Bentonville, Arkansas.
The Northwest Arkansas Times is a daily newspaper in Fayetteville, Arkansas owned by Northwest Arkansas Newspapers and has circulation of 17,807 copies. It was formerly owned by the Thomson Corporation, who sold it to Hollinger in 1995; Hollinger sold it on to Community Publishers Inc., owned by Jim Walton, in 1999. In 2005, WEHCO Media bought The Northwest Arkansas Times and the Benton County Daily Record from CPI. In 2009, WEHCO and Stephens Media merged their northwest Arkansas papers into a joint venture, Northwest Arkansas Newspapers.
Arkansas Highway 264 is a designation for three state highways in Benton County, Arkansas. The eastern route begins at US 71B and runs 7.75 miles (12.47 km) east to terminate at Beaver Lake. At 13.15 miles (21.16 km), the Highfill to Lowell route is the longest alignment. The westernmost routes runs 2.73 miles (4.39 km) in Siloam Springs.
Ozark Regional Transit is the provider of mass transportation in the Northwest Arkansas region, including Fayetteville, Springdale, Rogers, and Bentonville.
Harps Food Stores, Inc., based in Springdale, Arkansas, is a chain of 114 supermarkets located across Arkansas, Oklahoma, Missouri, and Kansas. The company sells both groceries and sporting goods in some larger stores, with several locations also incorporating pharmacies and fuel centers. In addition to its flagship brand, the company also operates grocery stores under four banners: Food4Less, in southwest Missouri; CashSaver in Tulsa; 10Box Cost-Plus; and Warehouse Market in Tulsa. The company additionally operates a franchise of Ace Hardware in Charleston, Arkansas.
Albert Oscar Clark (1858–1935), commonly known as A.O. Clark, was an American architect who worked in Arkansas in the early 1900s.
Northwest Arkansas (NWA) is a metropolitan area and region in Arkansas within the Ozark Mountains. It includes four of the ten largest cities in the state: Fayetteville, Springdale, Rogers, and Bentonville, the surrounding towns of Benton and Washington counties, and adjacent rural Madison County, Arkansas. The United States Census Bureau-defined Fayetteville–Springdale–Rogers Metropolitan Statistical Area includes 2,674 square miles (6,930 km2) and 525,032 residents, ranking NWA as the 105th most-populous metropolitan statistical area in the U.S. and the 22nd fastest growing in the United States.