GROVE — The annual Arkansas-Oklahoma Arkansas River Compact Commission meeting this past month featured the usual good-natured barbs  lobbed between the delegations but also the  constraints of Oklahoma's poultry lawsuit. 

Commission members on several occasions quipped that they feared saying anything that might put them in the witness chair in Tulsa federal district court.

Water Resources Board chief of the Water Quality Division, Derek Smithee, reported to commissioners that Oklahoma and Arkansas have made strides in coordinating water sampling programs.

At last year’s commission meeting in Fort Smith, Ark., the commission was challenged by Save the Illinois River Inc. (STIR) to get on the same page in water sampling for water impairments such as nutrients such as phosphorus. The discrepancy between state sampling programs and the bickering over data has been evident for years. 

At the insistence of persons attending the commission meeting, the commission told its Environmental Committee to develop plans to coordinate sampling techniques including samples during high levels caused by storms.

Smithee, chairman of the commission’s Environmental and Natural Resources Committee, reported that some questions remain on compatibility between the states on testing during storm flow conditions.  Storm events produce runoff containing high levels of pollution including bacteria.

The OWRB’s Monty Porter told commissioners that the two states currently have “fairly good” coverage of the of the Illinois River watershed for which the commission is responsible. He said the Oklahoma samples six to nine storm events a year in addition to monthly “grab samples.” 

“Arkansas is doing roughly the same,” Porter said.

Although there is more compatibility, Arkansas’ water monitoring program is less intense than Oklahoma’s program according a statement from the Arkansas technical support team.

The EPA has asked Arkansas and Oklahoma to cooperate in a water quality study which may lead to development of one or more total maximum daily loads (TMDLs) for Illinois River pollutants including phosphorus, nitrogen, sediment and bacteria. 

Asked if the basis for any TMDL will be Oklahoma’s .037 mg/L phosphorous standard of the Illinois River, Smithee said he did not know. He said a meeting with the EPA is scheduled in November and that information may be known then.

Data presented to the commission pointed to increased nutrient loading of the Illinois River and some tributaries, especially Flint Creek, Saeger Creek near Siloam Springs, the Arkansas and Illinois River near Tahlequah. The upper Illinois River and Barren Fork Creek are below the targeted 40 percent reduction in phosphorus based on a five-year rolling average. Flint Creek and Saeger Creek are above the average as is the Illinois at Tahlequah.  Abnormally high rainfall has added to nutrient loading at all four sampling sites in Arkansas and all trends for phosphorous are up over last year.

Siloam Springs, Ark., is building a new wastewater treatment plant that is scheduled to be completed in two years. Siloam Spring sewage is believed responsible for the increased phosphorus levels in Saeger and Flint creeks.

STIR expressed appreciation to the commission for seeking more compatibility in water monitoring.  However, STIR notified the commission that Arkansas has approved a new sewage treatment plant on a tributary of the Illinois River to serve Bentonville, Ark.

STIR believes the permit granted by the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality may be a violation of the Federal Clean Water Act. Concern about renewed efforts to impound Lee Creek in Arkansas for a water supply for the Van Buren area was also expressed. Damming Lee Creek could have a detrimental impact on Lee Creek in Oklahoma, a designated state scenic river.