EPA gets state to sign river deal

Oklahoma limit on phosphorus to be re-evaluated by 2012

BY ROBERT J. SMITH ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE 12/19/03

Months of wrangling over an agreement to improve the rivers that flow from Arkansas to Oklahoma ended this week, but the task is only beginning and a key question remains: Will it work?

Arkansas officials said not the way Oklahoma expects. But on Thursday, Arkansas officials signed a deal brokered by the Environmental Protection Agency.

They signed partly because there’s a phrase in the agreement that allows the states to re-evaluate the numerical limit Oklahoma established in its regulations by 2012, said Randy Young, director of the Arkansas Soil and Water Conservation Commission.

Oklahoma established a phosphorus limit of 0.037 milligrams per liter of water in May 2002.

"There’s not going to be any quibbling over the 0.037 over that 10 years," Young said. "During that 10 years, we’ll implement those things we’d said we’ll do, improve on monitoring and demonstrate whether it’s attainable.

"If it’s as we believe and not attainable, we’ll be in a position to prove it."

The numeric limit has long been a sticking point with Arkansas officials.

"The 0.037 was a very scary number to look at when Arkansas doesn’t know if it’s achievable," said Fayetteville Mayor Dan Coody. "It’s for people smarter than I am to figure out if it’s achievable."

Based on computer modeling, Arkansas officials claim that the water in the Illinois can only be reduced to 0.1 milligrams per liter, three times as much as Oklahoma wants.

Derek Smithee of the Oklahoma Water Resources Board said Thursday that the Illinois River near Tahlequah in the past year has had phosphorus levels between 0.061 and 0.151.

Arkansas’ promise to Oklahoma is to try to reach 0.037 milligrams per liter anyway.

"The number is a target for what we want the river to look like," said J.D. Strong, chief of staff for Oklahoma Secretary of Environment Miles Tolbert. "If we see significant improvement in the aesthetic quality and the uses of the rivers, it was worth it."

Millions of dollars will be spent by Northwest Arkansas cities to upgrade sewer plants. Millions more will go to study and implement ways to use excess poultry litter.

Arkansas insists that it will enforce three new state laws signed in April by Gov. Mike Huckabee regarding how poultry litter is used.

Phosphorus is a nutrient that helps crops grow, but too much of it can ruin waterways. At high levels, phosphorus can cause degradation in streams. Oxygen gets zapped. Fish and other aquatic life die.

Springdale already is working toward its prescribed sewer plant goal, said Rene Langston, director of Springdale Water Utilities.

By 2007, the city must limit the discharge into Spring Creek to 1.0 milligrams of phosphorus per liter of water. Spring Creek is in the Illinois River watershed.

Langston said the Springdale plant, the watershed’s biggest, has averaged 0.6 milligrams of phosphorus per liter in its discharge for the past two months, using biological treatment and chemicals such as alum.

All cities must follow a schedule to comply with an agreement to reduce phosphorus to 1 milligram per liter in their discharge. Rogers would need to comply by 2004 and Siloam Springs by 2009. Fayetteville already complies with the lower limit.

The disagreement between Oklahoma and Arkansas started in 2001, when Oklahoma first talked of tougher water-quality standards for six of the state’s scenic rivers. Four of those streams, including the Illinois, start their course westward from Arkansas.

Arkansas officials balked at Oklahoma’s numeric phosphorus limit, approved by former Oklahoma Gov. Frank Keating in May 2002.

A U.S. Supreme Court decision in 1992 involving Oklahoma and Fayetteville gives downstream states the right to require upstream states to meet water quality standards at the state line.

With Keating’s signature, Oklahoma forwarded its water-quality standards to the EPA on Nov. 1, 2002. Those remained in limbo until this week.

Agreements still need to be worked out with Arkansas cities and the state’s poultry industry, said Oklahoma Attorney General Drew Edmondson.

"We look forward to signing a formal agreement with the cities and to working toward a similar agreement with the poultry industry," Edmondson said.

Last week, Arkansas officials canceled a trip this week to Dallas to talk with EPA and Oklahoma officials. They reconsidered after hearing from people such as Coody and Oklahoma Scenic Rivers Commission Director Ed Fite.

Coody said he wants to invite all the key players to Fayetteville "to break bread together and start building the kind of relationship we ought to have."

"This is a celebration of a victory," Coody said. "First, we had to get the agreement. Now, we can start planning for the celebration."