Septic service in Van Buren and Crawford County

Van Buren sits just across the Arkansas River from Fort Smith, and inside the city most houses drain to a public sewer. Drive a few minutes north toward Cedarville, east toward Kibler and Alma, or out any county road in Crawford County, and that changes fast: the house treats its own wastewater in a septic tank and a drain field in the yard. This page covers what's specific to septic systems on the Van Buren side of the river, and how to reach a licensed septic pro when yours needs pumping or repair.

Sewer or septic? Where Van Buren's lines end

Van Buren Municipal Utilities has run the city's water and sewer since 1893, and it serves the City of Van Buren. If your address is outside the city, or in a pocket the sewer mains never reached, you are almost certainly on septic. The fastest way to know for sure is your bill: a VBMU sewer charge means you're on city sewer, and a water-only bill (or a rural water association bill) means the wastewater stays on your lot.

There is also a state rule that matters as the city grows. Under ADH rule 4.1, a property has to tie in to a sanitary sewer when one is within 300 feet of where the house's sewer line leaves the building and the connection doesn't have to cross someone else's land. So a lot on the edge of town that once needed a septic permit may not get one today, and a buyer looking at a lot near new sewer lines should ask before paying for a perc test.

Crawford County ground is hard on drain fields

We pulled the U.S. Department of Agriculture's soil data for Crawford County (NRCS soil survey area AR033, the same data behind the free Web Soil Survey) and looked at how the county's main soils rate for septic tank absorption fields. Of the roughly 339,000 acres of mapped major soils, about 312,000, a little over nine acres in ten, are rated very limited for a conventional field. Only about 19,000 acres come out somewhat limited. The reasons NRCS gives, in order of how many acres they cover:

• Slow percolation two to six feet down, on close to 297,000 acres. Water soaks in slowly, which is exactly what a field can't afford.
• Slope of 8 percent or more on about 192,000 acres, the hill country that makes up much of the county.
• Bedrock 40 to 70 inches down on about 173,000 acres, leaving little soil to treat the water.
• Groundwater four to six feet below the surface on about 59,000 acres, and rare flooding on about 36,000, mostly in the bottoms along the river and its creeks.

The most common soil in the county by far is Enders, on about 122,000 acres, followed by Nella, Mountainburg, Leadvale and Linker. "Very limited" doesn't mean a house can't have septic. It means the system has to be designed around the soil: bigger fields, low-pressure distribution, or an aerobic treatment unit, all of which have more parts to maintain. It's also why a Van Buren-area field that's been fine for years can start to struggle after a wet spring; see drain field problems for the signs.

Where your septic permit file is kept

Every permitted system in the county has a file at the Crawford County Health Unit, 2040 Chestnut Ave., Van Buren, phone (479) 474-6391, which lists septic tanks among its environmental health services (ADH local health unit directory). That includes homes in Alma, Mulberry, Cedarville and Kibler, not just Van Buren. Ask for the onsite wastewater file for your address. It can show the tank size, the kind of system, where the field and the backup area were laid out, and for an aerobic unit, who holds the monitoring contract. Homes on the south side of the river, like Greenwood or Barling, go through Sebastian County instead.

If you're buying a house in Van Buren's outskirts, pull that file before closing and compare it with the house; our septic inspection guide lists what to look for.

What Van Buren septic calls usually are

• Pump-outs on tanks that haven't been touched in years: see septic tank pumping, and check your interval with the septic pumping calculator.
• Alarms on aerobic units and pump tanks, common on the county's tight, sloping soils.
• Backups after heavy rain, when slow-draining ground around the field is already full. Start with what to check when septic backs up.
• New systems on rural lots, which start with soil pits and an ADH permit: see septic installation.

Call the number on this page and we'll connect you with a licensed septic pro who works the Van Buren side of the river.