Arkansas is serious about water

By SHAUN SCHAFER World Staff Writer 10/23/2002

Phosphorus regulations are eyed due to concerns of degradation of lakes.

Comments from the operator of the largest water district in northwestern Arkansas have people on the Arkansas side of the state line hopeful that the regulation of phosphorus may successfully stretch across borders.

Alan Fortenberry, chief executive officer of the Beaver Water District in Lowell, Ark., said earlier this month that Oklahoma's phosphorus standard in the Illinois River could lead to more Arkansas systems discharging wastewater into streams that stay within that state. For the Beaver Water District that would mean more treated sewage would be discharged in areas that drain to Beaver Lake, Fortenberry said.

Such an increase in intrastate sewage would jeopardize the lake and the district, he said. Beaver Water District serves about 300,000 people in one of the fastest-growing areas of the nation.

Earlier this year, the Oklahoma Water Resources Board approved a plan to reach a phosphorus standard of 0.037 milligrams per liter for Oklahoma’s six scenic rivers within 10 years. The standard would affect Arkansas because four of these streams start there and they receive wastewater in Arkansas.

An overabundance of phosphorus spawns algae blooms, which lead to degradation in water quality. Although four of the scenic rivers -- Barren Fork Creek, the Big and Little Lee creeks and Upper Mountain Fork River -- are at or near the 0.037 threshold, the Illinois River and Flint Creek are not. The Illinois receives wastewater from several Oklahoma and Arkansas communities.

"I'm amazed that some people in Arkansas have begun to understand what will happen if they keep their discharge in Arkansas," said Jon Craig, director of the water quality division of the Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality. "They'll get degradation."

If water suppliers and the tourism industry in Arkansas have to battle with algae blooms and water quality problems, there could be calls for a phosphorus standard there, Craig said. There is no phosphorus standard in Arkansas.

"If you start getting algae blooms in your scenic rivers, pretty quickly you realize that this is not the way it should be in a natural state," Craig added.

Ed Fite, administrator for the Oklahoma Scenic Rivers Commission, said people throughout northwestern Arkansas and northeastern Oklahoma are finally taking a view of the whole water basin. This has people looking for water quality solutions, regardless of state boundaries, Fite said.

"Most of the folks over there in Arkansas want what we want, clean water," Fite said from his Tahlequah office. "Quality of life issues are at hand. Recreation issues are at hand."

Tulsa Metropolitan Utility Authority board member Richard Sevenoaks said he expected even more comments like Fortenberry's in the coming months. Tulsa has had to deal with phosphorus in its water supply, some of it coming from wastewater plants in Arkansas.

"Beaver Lake is their drinking water supply, and now they are going to have to treat for the taste and odor problem," Sevenoaks said.

Ultimately, everyone seems to be arriving at the same point, Fite added.

"I think what everyone is realizing is that clean water is everybody’s job," Fite said. "We just have got a lot of work ahead of us."

Shaun Schafer, World staff writer, can be reached at 581-8320 or via-mail at shaun.schafer@ tulsaworld.com.