Benton County, AR Building Safety: Plumbing Permits (2026)

Sec. " Plumbing work covered by that code, such as new water supply and drain-waste-vent installations, water heater changeouts and septic-connected fixture work, on land outside Bentonville, Rogers, Siloam Springs, Bella Vista, Centerton and the county's other incorporated cities, must follow the 2006 edition as adopted. Enforcement authority sits with "the county judge, or such code enforcement officers as the county judge shall appoint," and the ordinance directs that any reference inside the plumbing code itself to the officials who administer it be read, for unincorporated Benton County, as a reference to the county judge.

That grant is capped: nothing in Sec. 14-31 "is intended or shall be construed to extend the authority of the county judge or persons the county judge designates as code enforcement officers beyond code enforcement," so a plumbing inspector cannot exercise authority outside the adopted code. Subsection (d) builds in automatic updating: if the state adopts an amendment to the 2006 Arkansas Plumbing Code, "that amendment shall apply and be enforced in the unincorporated areas of the county without the need for such to be formally adopted by ordinance," so a homeowner or contractor should confirm current state amendments with the county rather than rely on the unamended 2006 text.

§ 14-14-909, cited directly in the ordinance. The same Article II of Chapter 14 adopts five companion technical codes the identical way: the 2012 Arkansas Fire Prevention Code at Sec. 14-26, the 2014 National Electrical Code at Sec. 14-27, the 2014 Arkansas Energy Code at Sec. 14-28, the 2006 Arkansas Fuel Gas Code at Sec. 14-29 and the 2010 Arkansas Mechanical Code at Sec. 14-30.