No time left for waste EPA says

By ROD WALTON World Staff Writer 12/16/2003

Oklahoma is assured that an agreement will be reached or a standard adopted concerning Illinois River basin pollution.

The federal Environmental Protection Agency's regional administrator said a Tuesday meeting between Arkansas and Oklahoma officials could be the last-ditch effort toward reaching an agreement on fighting pollution in the Illinois River basin.

But if no agreement is reached at the summit, Richard Greene said, the EPA might make a decision on Oklahoma's long-sought water quality standard in "days, not weeks."

"We think this will be the final meeting," Greene said Monday. He heads the EPA's regional office in Dallas, where the meeting will be held.

"If there's no agreement, we'll act on the long-standing numerical standard" already adopted in Oklahoma, Greene said. "We'll have to make a decision on that."

Oklahoma last year approved a plan to limit phosphorus pollution in its scenic rivers to 0.037 milligrams per liter, or parts per million. The standard also would apply to water flowing into the state from Arkansas.

Environmental advocates say the Illinois River basin -- a popular recreational area -- is being polluted by increasing phosphorus from poultry operations and municipal wastewater treatment plants. High phosphorus levels can spark algae growth and kill aquatic life, reports show.

Several northwest Arkansas cities that lie in the Illinois basin apparently are ready to accept the 0.037 numerical standard.

Arkansas environmental officials, however, have contended that the benchmark is not achievable for the entire region.

In fact, the Arkansas officials announced last week that they would not participate in Tuesday's meeting in Dallas. By Monday, however, they had changed their minds.

"That's a hopeful sign," Greene said.

Officials from both states previously have said they hoped that some sort of agreement would help avoid a legal fight over the phosphorus standard.

The two states battled in court more than 10 years ago over a planned Fayetteville, Ark., wastewater discharge into an Illinois tributary.

The case eventually went to the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled in Fayetteville's favor.

At the same time, though, the high court made it clear that an upstream state had to meet a downstream neighbor's water-quality standards.

Arkansas officials are afraid that they cannot cope with a 0.037 standard forcing tougher permitting processes for poultry companies.

The poultry industry generates billions of dollars and thousands of jobs in the region.

The Illinois River region attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors each year to swim, canoe and fish in its relatively clear waters.

Many Illinois observers, however, say that water is not as clear as it used to be.

A U.S. Geological Survey study of the basin released this year found phosphorus concentrations as high as 1.66 milligrams per liter in some areas.

Those types of numbers would put the Illinois "at the worst end" of the nation's scenic, pristine rivers, said Bill Andrews, co-author of the USGS report.

Oklahoma officials have been hoping that their long wait for the EPA to adopt the phosphorus standard would end soon.

In August, a state official said he believed that federal approval might be "weeks instead of months" away.

This time is different, the EPA's Greene promised. Either an Oklahoma-Arkansas agreement will come from Tuesday's meeting, or a standard will be adopted. "We've been working on it a long time," he said.