Group Goals for river water need revising

Official says sampling program unlikely to be funded this year

BY ROBERT J. SMITH ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE

9/24/04

RUSSELLVILLE — The Arkansas-Oklahoma Arkansas River Compact Commission’s goal of reducing phosphorus levels by 40 percent was a fine target in its day, but it’s time to come up with a better, more complete way to gauge water quality, a commission committee contends.

Committee members discussed new standards Thursday at the visitors center at Lake Dardanelle State Park in Russellville, looking out at the lake but focusing on streams more than 100 miles away.

The committees will report on their discussion at today’s river compact commission meeting. They’ll also tell commissioners they aren’t hopeful that they’ll be able to obtain millions in federal money for a more intensive monitoring program on the streams that run from Northwest Arkansas into Oklahoma.

"It’s been viewed as the be-all to end-all," said Derek Smithee, water quality director of the Oklahoma Water Resources Board, as he held a copy of the latest report on phosphorus reduction in the streams. "It’s really the be-little to end-little."

The compact commission wants to step up water monitoring in the Illinois River basin, but Smithee suggested there’s not much chance of getting the $9.3 million being sought for a five-year water sampling program. Commissioners in July talked of using automatic water samplers at 13 sites, including five in Arkansas.

Smithee said it appears to be too late to get the federal money for the program this year. The program would check for phosphorus, but also nitrogen, dissolved oxygen, water clarity and other measures of water quality.

"It’s not done yet, though," Smithee said. "It’s Congress and things can change. The idea was very well received."

Committee members talked about the importance of looking at phosphorus concentrations at Lake Tenkiller and in the rivers that flow to it.

"To me, we need to know two things," said Marc Nelson, director of the Arkansas Water Resources Center. "Instream water quality and loading in Lake Tenkiller."

The compact commission in 1996 set a goal of reducing phosphorus by 40 percent at eight sites. Four sites are in Oklahoma, and the other four are in Arkansas.

The compact commission’s report showed two sites — both on the Barren Fork River — met the 40 percent reduction goal. The baseline is the average phosphorus levels between 1980 and 1993.

The states have been at odds since the early 1980s about riv- er phosphorus, but the differences were intensified two years ago when Oklahoma established a numeric phosphorus limit for six of the state’s scenic rivers.

Four of the streams start in Arkansas, and Arkansas views Oklahoma’s concentration limit of 0.037 milligrams of phosphorus per litter of water as unattainable.

Phosphorus in streams and lakes at high levels causes algae bloom and degrades water quality.

The report on the compact commission’s 40 percent goal and a separate report by Arkansas Water Resources Center director Marc Nelson showed phosphorus amounts decreased in 2003 when compared to 2002.

Low rainfalls were among the reasons credited for the reduction in both reports.

Nelson’s report tied some of the decrease in phosphorus on the Illinois River to Northwest Arkansas cities who’ve vastly reduced the amount of phosphorus they put into streams.

The river carried 218,000 kilograms of phosphorus in 2002, but 65,000 kilograms last year, Nelson said.

Sewer plants in Rogers, Springdale, Prairie Grove and Fayetteville put 130,000 kilograms of phosphorus into rivers in 2002, but just 30,000 kilograms last year, Nelson said.