Water

Central Arkansas Water (CAW)

Central Arkansas Water is the public drinking water system that serves Little Rock, North Little Rock and most of the suburban areas.

The raw water supply comes from two man-made lakes. Lake Winona has a surface area of 1,240 acres and a storage capacity of 14 billion gallons. The average depth of the lake is 34.7 feet. Lake Winona is 35 miles west of the metropolitan area in the Ouachita National Forest and has a watershed of 43 square miles. A 39-inch-diameter gravity-flow pipeline delivers water from the lake to the system’s service area. The pipeline can handle 23 million gallons per day.

Lake Maumelle, the largest water source, has an area of 8,900 acres and a capacity of 72 billion gallons. The average depth is 24.7 feet. The lake is connected to the water production system via a 48-inch-diameter raw water pipeline and a 72-inch-diameter raw water pipeline. The safe yield of the lake is 93 million gallons per day.

Water treatment takes place at the Ozark Point Water Treatment Plant and the Jack H. Wilson Water Treatment Plant.

The two treatment plants have a rated capacity of 157 million gallons per day. With existing water treatment plants and sources, the Little Rock-North Little Rock raw water supply will be adequate until the year 2060.

Central Arkansas Water has a service area of approximately 360 square miles and, including wholesale customers, serves a population of approximately 400,000.

Benton’s water is obtained from the Saline River. Storage capacity is 4 billion gallons (finished water), with a pumping capacity exceeding 13.3 million gallons per day.

Bryant obtains water from Central Arkansas Water. Improvements will be made to increase storage capacity to four million gallons.

Cabot’s source water capacity is 4.2 million gallons per day (MGD) from six water wells. Water is pumped from these wells located in the Mississippi River Valley North Alluvial Aquifer to a treatment plant located south of Cabot. Cabot Water Works also purchases up to 2 MGD of treated water from Jacksonville Water Works.

Carlisle’s water system operates at 1.2 million gallons per day, with a surplus of 600,000 gallons per day.

Conway’s raw water is obtained from Lake James H. Brewer with an emergency supply coming from Cadron Creek. The water treatment plant’s storage capacity is 24 million gallons per day with a pumping capacity of 32 million gallons per day. The surplus capacity is 11.25 million gallons per day.

Jacksonville’s water supply is obtained from municipal wells and Central Arkansas Water. Storage capacity is 9.25 million gallons with a pumping capacity of 10.4 million gallons per day.

Lonoke obtains its water from two wells. Storage capacity is one million gallons with a pumping capacity of 2.6 million gallons per day.

Maumelle’s water is obtained from 11 wells and is provided by Maumelle Water Management. The treatment capacity is 7 million gallons with an average daily consumption of 2.6 million gallons per day.

Sherwood obtains its water from Central Arkansas Water.

Rate schedules for the various water systems may be obtained from the respective water utilities.

For more information, Joey Dean (Vice President, Economic Development; Executive Director, Metro Little Rock Alliance), 501.377.6006.