Fort Smith glass picks up organic film and mildew on shaded river-valley walls, and road grit along the main commercial corridors of the city.
Fort Smith runs two separate supplies, Lake Fort Smith and Lee Creek, and Arkansas's report format leaves no slot for hardness, so no figure is published. Humidity in the river valley matters more for glass: shaded walls grow mildew and organic film, and a neglected north side costs more to bring back than a large, well-kept house. July to October gives the best run of weather, and a single-story exterior runs $200 to $380.
No hardness figure is published for Fort Smith, and reading the report makes clear that this is a format problem rather than a local one — the state's template carries no secondary or aesthetic table at all. What the supply does carry is organic material from two forested mountain watersheds, which drives disinfection by-product formation rather than scale. Working here, treat film and biological soiling as the primary residue and do not expect a mineral answer to a problem that is not mineral.
Figures by plant, as reported.
| Hardness | not published Fort Smith Water Utilities publishes no hardness figure in its 2023 Annual Drinking Water Quality Report, PWS 507. |
|---|---|
| Disinfectant | free chlorine |
| Source and treatment | Two watersheds: Frog Bayou, a 74-square-mile forested valley in the Boston Mountains stored in Lake Fort Smith at about 1,400 surface acres, and Lee Creek, a 439-square-mile watershed across Arkansas and Oklahoma stored in Lee Creek Reservoir at about 634 surface acres. The Lee Creek plant can also draw from the Arkansas River and has done so on one occasion. · Coagulation, flocculation, sedimentation, filtration, chlorine disinfection and fluoridation. No softening step appears in the operator's own description of the process. · No softening step. |
Not in the report: pH, alkalinity, corrosion index, iron, manganese, sodium, chloride and total dissolved solids.
SOURCE · Fort Smith Water Utilities, 2023 Annual Drinking Water Quality Report, PWS 507 · How we source these numbers
Humidity governs the rhythm more than temperature does. Summer river-valley air slows evaporation, which is a working advantage on hot glass but keeps shaded elevations damp enough for mildew to hold year-round — north-facing work needs a shorter interval than the sunny side of the same building. Spring pollen off the surrounding hills gives one heavy fortnight, and winter is workable in stretches interrupted by ice rather than by sustained cold.
ARKANSAS SEASON BY SEASON →Fort Smith runs two independent supplies — the 74 square mile Frog Bayou watershed stored in Lake Fort Smith, and the much larger 439 square mile Lee Creek watershed reaching into Oklahoma — each with its own treatment plant. No hardness figure appears anywhere in the report, because the state's report format has no slot for one. What the numbers do show is organic-rich mountain runoff: trihalomethanes averaging 40 ppb and ranging to 48.9. The local distinctives are Garrison Avenue's unusual width, which exposes poor work from a distance, and river-valley humidity.
The city runs two entirely independent water supplies rather than one, which is unusual at this scale and means the character of the water can shift with which plant is carrying the load.
The primary source is the Frog Bayou watershed, a 74 square mile forested valley in the Boston Mountains two miles north of Mountainburg, fed by 43 to 56 inches of rain a year and stored in Lake Fort Smith at about 1,400 surface acres.
The second is the Lee Creek watershed, which at 439 square miles is far larger and crosses into Oklahoma, stored in Lee Creek Reservoir at roughly 634 surface acres and treated at a separate plant in Crawford County.
The Lee Creek plant, dedicated in 1991, can produce 23.3 million gallons a day but typically runs around 10, and it carries a hydro generator capable of 1,500 kilowatts. It also has the ability to draw from the Arkansas River directly, which it has done once.
Both supplies are forested-watershed runoff, and that shows in the disinfection by-product numbers: total trihalomethanes ran a highest twelve-month average of 40 parts per billion across a range reaching 48.9, with haloacetic acids at 19 across a range to 25.3.
Those are compliant figures but they are not low, and they are the signature of organic-rich water from timbered hills. For a cleaner the relevance is indirect — organic loading rather than mineral loading is what this supply carries.
Fluoride is added rather than merely present, and the two plants dose slightly differently: an average of 0.74 parts per million at the Mountainburg plant against 0.84 at Lee Creek.
Lead and copper monitoring found nothing worth reporting — thirty sampled sites, none above the action level, lead below 0.001 parts per million and copper below 0.020.
Garrison Avenue's exceptional width is a genuine operational fact rather than trivia. Frontages there are viewed from much further back than on a conventional main street, and at that distance streaking and missed edges are far more visible than they would be elsewhere.
River-valley humidity slows drying through the summer, which helps on hot days by extending the working window but encourages organic film and mildew on shaded northern elevations year-round.
Condition on arrival drives more of the quote here than size does, because humidity means neglected north elevations come back with established biological film rather than loose dust. Heritage work downtown and in Belle Grove prices on care and pane count. Chaffee Crossing prices on volume and access and is where the growth is. The Rogers Avenue strip prices on frequency, since roadside grit makes the lower half of a frontage the recurring job.
Suburban glass on the south side is straightforward and the supply causes no difficulty. Two things reward a professional. Historic downtown and Belle Grove glazing is original and irreplaceable, and it will not tolerate scraping or aggressive product. And the Garrison Avenue frontages are unforgiving in a way that surprises people — the street is wide enough that the whole elevation is taken in at once from across it, so an uneven finish reads as a streak the length of the building rather than as a missed corner.
OPEN COST ESTIMATOR →2025 annual mean at the 207 Cherokee Boulevard, Roland, OK 74954 monitor, 15.4 km north-west of the city (EPA site 40-135-9021).
Largest air release: OK Foods-FT Smith, 4201 Reed LN (food), inside the city limits, 25,944 lb in 2024.
Even when no conservation measures are in force, Fort Smith bars watering lawns, turf, shrubs or gardens so heavily that water escapes onto alleys, streets or other public property.
Fort Smith Code §25-125: limitations and prohibitions when conservation measures are not in effect · checked September 2026
In Fort Smith it's unlawful to sweep, throw or deposit garbage or litter into any public drain, sewer, receiving basin, canal or stream, or to let it pile up where rain, wind or snow will carry it in, so grit and debris from a job belong in a bag, not the inlet.
Fort Smith Code Sec. 25-269: protection of public facilities · checked September 2026
Before anything visible is built, changed, restored, moved or torn down in Fort Smith's historic district, from a building to a fence or a light fixture, the owner must apply for a certificate of appropriateness covering its exterior features.
Fort Smith Code §19-62: certificate of appropriateness, procedures · checked September 2026
Loblolly, shortleaf, and Arkansas pine produce the dominant statewide spring contaminant. Heavier pulse than the deciduous tree-pollen wave that defines the Northeast. Wet-only handling. No scraping, no dry-brushing. Same pattern Elly Giordano documents for Alabama and Mississippi.
Statewide tornado activity heavy. Wind-driven debris pattern, hail-impact residue, occasional structural-residue from damaged adjacent properties. Recurring post-event cleaning surge through the spring season.
Mississippi Embayment alluvial-aquifer water with sub-micron suspended-particulate fraction. Iron content moderate-to-high on some distribution-system segments. Extended citric pre-treatment (3-5 minutes) plus citric-rinse finish required on most Delta-corridor stock.
No hardness figure is published for Fort Smith, and reading the report makes clear that this is a format problem rather than a local one — the state's template carries no secondary or aesthetic table at all. What the supply does carry is organic material from two forested mountain watersheds, which drives disinfection by-product formation rather than scale.
Residential window cleaning in Fort Smith typically runs $7–12 per pane or $200–380 for a standard single-story exterior. Condition on arrival drives more of the quote here than size does, because humidity means neglected north elevations come back with established biological film rather than loose dust.
Fort Smith's drier, frost-free months are July to October, by NOAA's 1991–2020 normals for the Fort Smith Regional Airport station, where May brings the most rain. The calendar on this page marks July (after the March 24 bloom) and October (after smoke season and before frost). Frost nights usually run from November 6 to March 25. Normal highs reach 90°F in July and August.
Fort Smith Water Utilities publishes neither hardness nor dissolved solids, so rinse one pane and let it dry in sun; a white ring means switch to pure water. It draws on two watersheds: Frog Bayou.
In Fort Smith the dominant residue patterns include organic film and mildew on shaded river-valley elevations and road grit along the main commercial corridors. Humidity governs the rhythm more than temperature does.
Suburban glass on the south side is straightforward and the supply causes no difficulty. Two things reward a professional. Historic downtown and Belle Grove glazing is original and irreplaceable, and it will not tolerate scraping or aggressive product.
An exceptionally wide main street lined with late 19th-century commercial frontage, much of it with original upper-storey sash above reworked shopfronts. The width means elevations are read from a distance, which shows streaking that a narrow street would hide. Belle Grove Historic District and Downtown riverfront have their own housing stock and glazing as well.
Just over the Arkansas line