Ark. Code Ann. § 14-235-203 (2026)
Authority generally
- The authority given in this subchapter shall be in addition to, and not in derogation of, any power existing in any municipality under any statutory or charter provisions which it may adopt.
- For all purposes of this subchapter, all municipalities shall have jurisdiction for ten (10) miles outside their corporate limits.
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- Every municipality in the State of Arkansas is authorized and empowered to own, acquire, construct, equip, operate, and maintain, within or without the corporate limits of the city or town, a sewage collection system or a sewage treatment plant, intercepting sewers, outfall sewers, force mains, pumping stations, ejector stations, and all other appurtenances necessary or useful and convenient for the collection and treatment, purification, and disposal in a sanitary manner of the liquid and solid waste, sewage, night soil, and industrial waste of the municipality. However, before a municipality may construct, operate, or maintain a sewage collection system or sewage treatment plant outside the corporate limits, it must be demonstrated in accordance with subsection (d) of this section that such construction, operation, or maintenance within the corporate limits is not feasible. If it is determined that it is not feasible to construct, operate, or maintain the sewage collection system or sewage treatment plant within the corporate limits, the feasibility of constructing, operating, or maintaining the sewage collection system or sewage treatment plant within the municipality's seven-year growth area must be determined in accordance with subsection (d) of this section.
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- A municipality shall not seek placement of a sewage collection system or sewage treatment plant within its seven-year growth area if it is feasible to locate the sewage collection system or sewage treatment plant within the corporate limits of the municipality.
- A municipality shall not seek placement of a sewage collection system or sewage treatment plant outside its seven-year growth area if it is feasible to locate the sewage collection system or sewage treatment plant within the seven-year growth area of the municipality.
- The determination of feasibility shall include the municipality's best efforts to locate the sewage collection system or sewage treatment plant within the corporate limits of the municipality. The question of feasibility in regard to placing a sewage collection system or sewage treatment plant outside the corporate limits of the municipality shall address all criteria required by applicable state and federal laws and regulations, applicable financing requirements, physical possibility, cost of construction or maintenance, and any material adverse effect on real property outside the corporate limits of the municipality. The determination of material adverse effect on real property outside the corporate limits of the municipality shall be made by a state-certified appraiser and shall be in conformance with the Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice of the Appraisal Foundation. The determination of feasibility shall be made by a certified engineer appointed by the municipality's governing body.
- All feasibility determinations shall be made in good faith without a predisposition to any proposed or feasible locations. Any engineer or engineering firm hired to determine feasibility as provided in this section shall consider not only locations proposed by the municipality, but any location within the corporate limits that may be suitable.
History. Acts 1933, No. 132, §§ 1, 20; Pope's Dig., §§ 9977, 9996; A.S.A. 1947, §§ 19-4101, 19-4120; Acts 1997, No. 1336, § 1.
Publisher's Notes. Acts 1997, No. 1336 became law without the Governor's signature.
Amendments. The 1997 amendment added the last two sentences in present (c)(1); added (c)(2); and added (d) and (e).
Case Notes
In General.
The effective date of Acts 1997, No. 1336, was August 1, 1997, and the act is not to be applied retroactively; thus, the act does not apply to a facility on which construction was commenced prior to August 1, 1997. City of Dover v. Barton, 337 Ark. 186, 987 S.W.2d 705 (1999).
Illegal Exaction.
Stormwater utility fee was not an illegal exaction because § 14-235-223(a)(1) did not state that the fee had to be paid by any beneficiary, whether intended or unintended, of the sewerage system, and the code did not define “sewerage system” to distinguish between the wastewater sewer system and the stormwater sewer system. Morningstar v. Bush, 2011 Ark. 350, 383 S.W.3d 840 (2011).
Outside Corporate Limits.
A sewer improvement district may acquire an outlet for the sewage, and it may do so although the outlet extends beyond the corporate limits of the municipality within which the sewer district was organized, but compensation for the outlet and the damages incident thereto should be assessed on the theory of a permanent taking under the right of eminent domain. Sewer Improv. Dist. No. 1 v. Jones, 199 Ark. 534, 134 S.W.2d 551 (1939).
Cited: Cowling v. Foreman, 238 Ark. 677, 384 S.W.2d 251 (1964); Davis v. City of Blytheville, 2015 Ark. 482, 478 S.W.3d 214 (2015).