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Water source damaged by slide 2002  Chenault Reservoir, the site of a major slide in December 2002, has been repaired. The reservoir, when filled to capacity, is capable of providing a 120-day supply for Benton Utilities water customers.
A construction project at the facility was completed in just under a year’s time, said Terry McKinney, general manager of Benton Utilities.
The original reservoir construction began in the summer of 1999 and was completed in the fall of 2001, McKinney said. Upon completion, the reservoir was filled to capacity.
However, a major slide on an exterior slope of the reservoir occurred Dec. 31, 2002.
After the slide, Anderson Engineers was hired to determine what effects the slide had on the reservoir.
Later, Terracon Consulting Engineers and Scientists of Little Rock was hired to analyze the data collected by Anderson and to design construction drawings for the needed repairs to the reservoir.
The engineer in charge of the remediation project was Lok Sharma of Terracon, who, McKinney said, is “one of the foremost authorities in the country in the field of slope stability.”
According to McKinney, Sharma’s initial review of the site determined the following areas that would require remediation: Repair of all distressed areas of the levee, slope stabilization of all areas that exhibit lower than required factors of safety, repair embankment erosion, regrading the embankment top to prevent future erosion, and grading and erosion control measures to the outside embankment surfaces to facilitate maintenance.
“After the project was designed, a bid date was set for March 19, 2007,” McKinney said.
Pickett Industries of Bossier City, La., was the low qualified bidder and received the contract, McKinney said.
Benton Utilities signed a notice to proceed with Pickett on June 12, 2007, for the amount of $2,594,945, he said.
“When the work was completed earlier this month, the total costs came in under the projected costs by around $143,00, with the final costs for the construction amounting to around $2.45 million,” McKinney noted.
Benton Utilities is now in the process of refilling the reservoir to capacity, he said. It’s currently about 60 percent filled.
McKinney noted that the reservoir encompasses around 100 acres and contains approximately 770,490,223 gallons of raw water. Based on average daily use, the reservoir will provide a 120-day supply of water without pumping any water from the Saline River or utilizing Lake Norrell, he said.
“This will supply Benton Utilities wholesale and retail customers based on average daily flows,” he said, adding: “We strive to meet all rules and regulations set forth by the Environmental Protection Agency’s Safe Drinking Water Act, for which we have been successful in this endeavor.”
The goal, McKinney said “is to provide the citizens in Benton and the outlying areas with the best water possible. This reservoir will assist us in achieving this goal. This has been our purpose since the middle of 1916 and will continue to be our objective for many years to come.”
A lawsuit the city filed against the contractor of the reservoir regarding the slide at the facility has not been settled. An arbitration hearing on the issue is scheduled in October.
Saline Crushing and Excavating, owned by Billy Fred Warford, was the contractor for the reservoir project.
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