BRIAN CHILSON
SCHOOL’S IN: Superintendent Andy Curry, at Jessieville High School.
sign points like a welcoming arrow to an opening in the forest where hikers can merge onto the Ouachita National Forest Trail, which wends its way along the northern edge of the impound lake. This section of the trail roughly parallels the 13.5 miles of pipe that snakes through a watershed that provides water for 400,000 people in and around Little Rock. About one in seven Arkansans drinks, bathes, cooks and cleans with water from the reservoir. Like the drone of cicadas and the babble of creeks, the Pegasus — with its distinctive red, yellow and black markers — is pretty much a constant hiking partner. Sometimes the trail runs right atop the buried spine of the pipeline itself. In places, rain has rutted gullies in the reddish soil, exposing the top of the pipeline to the elements. Expansive views of the 8,900-acre lake are never far away. At points, the Pegasus skirts within 600 feet of the lake’s edge. West of Highway 113 it’s easy to count the spots — one, two, three — where the Pegasus crosses the Maumelle River, which Little Rock’s water utility dammed in 1957 to create the lake. East of Highway 113, the Pegasus runs through 22
AUGUST 29, 2013
ARKANSAS TIMES
miles of rugged, steep terrain without road access. At least half a dozen robust creeks drain that area, carving a direct path to the lake below. There’s only one shut-off valve for the Pegasus in the 88,000-acre watershed, a fact that makes Central Arkansas Water nervous. The valve is at the western end of Lake Maumelle and would require at least one Exxon representative to drive to the site to manually close it. The utility figures at least two hours would pass from the time a rupture was detected to the time the valve was closed. By then, the utility estimates that about 1.2 million gallons of oil could escape from the pipeline into the watershed. The utility’s auxiliary water supply, little Lake Winona, can supply only 38 percent of water required on a daily basis. If Lake Maumelle took a shot of oil, Central Arkansas Water would have to draw and treat water pulled from beneath the Arkansas River, a highway for barges. “The Arkansas River ... would not be anybody’s second, third or fourth choice” as a drinking water source, said Graham Rich, the utility’s chief executive officer.
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JESSIEVILLE: Milepost 271.8
p state Highway 7 from the sprawl of drug stores and restaurants at the west gate of Hot Springs Village, the sleepy burg of Jessieville sits like a jewel in rolling hills and deep greenery. Jessieville High School’s stern main building resembles schools from little towns all over Arkansas, with puzzle-piece stonework walls built by the WPA. The Pegasus runs about 800 feet beyond the back fence of the property. Before he fielded a reporter’s call, Andy Curry, the superintendent of the 910-student district, didn’t know his school might be nearer to the Pegasus than any other in Arkansas. Though Curry knew a pipeline was nearby (hunters install deer stands along the easement, he said) he didn’t know it carried petroleum, and he didn’t know it was the same line that ruptured in Mayflower. During his three-year tenure, he says, Exxon hasn’t contacted the school with instructions on what to do in case of a leak. By his reading, the Mayflower story faded quickly from news coverage in his area. To Curry, it was just like the Gulf spill that he says BP “PR’ed” to death.