LITTLE ROCK — In-stream mining operations along portions of Crooked Creek will remain off limits after the state's Pollution Control and Ecology Commission on Friday upheld a decision to suspend two permits held by a Mountain Home gravel miner.
Guy King and Sons Inc., which operated two in-stream mining operations along the creek, had appealed a January decision by the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality to suspend all in-stream mining operations along Crooked Creek. The other three sites affected belonged to Mountain Home Concrete Inc.
The decision was based on concerns that in-stream mining has polluted the creek.
Considered one of the best smallmouth bass fishing streams in the nation, Crooked Creek flows 82 miles through Newton, Boone and Marion Counties.
Property-rights advocates and conservationists have fought over the creek for more than a decade.
On Friday, the company had an opportunity to argue its case before the Commission but declined to do so. The Commission voted unanimously, without comment, to uphold Administrative Hearing Officer Michael O'Malley's recommendation to suspend the permits.
Conservationists applauded the decision.
"We see this as a watershed event that is going to protect our stream," said Gene Dunaway, an attorney and president of the Friends of the North Fork and White RiversInc., who had intervened in the appeal process. "No. 1, it is a recognition by the ADEQ and the commission that in-stream gravel mining is degrading our streams."
Guy King and Sons officials were not available for comment Friday.
Roger Morgan, a Mountain Home attorney who represented the company during the administrative hearing, said his clients "did not feel like it would probably do any good" to argue their case before the Commission. He declined to comment when asked if his clients would appeal in circuit court.
In 2004, the stream was declared an impaired water body, a designation under the federal Clean Water Act that must be approved by the Environmental Protection Agency.
That designation, which allows the state to enforce more stringent regulations on the creek, was key in the department's decision in January to suspend permits for the five in-stream gravel mining operations. The decision came three months after the department denied three applications for similar operations from the two companies.
The creek was considered impaired because of excessive water temperature, a problem the department believes is created by the removal of trees and other vegetation along stream banks during mining operations. The removal of trees reduces shade and in-stream mining makes the stream bed more shallow, so water can heat up faster.
During an administrative hearing on the appeal in May, Guy King and Sons Inc., argued that the department's water temperature collection methods were suspect and that other factors, besides gravel mining, could have raised the temperature in the stream, according to the recommended decision, signed by O'Malley in September.
O'Malley wrote that the company offered no proof of its claims.
The five sites where in-stream mining has been prohibited are between the bridges over Crooked Creek on Arkansas 14 and Arkansas 101 in Marion County. Friday's decision does not affect mining sites outside the stream banks.
Department spokesman DougSzenher said future mining permits will be handled on a case-by-case basis, though he said he doesn't expect the department will grant any new permits for in-stream mining anytime in the near future.
The next step in restoration of the creek will be an in-depth study on the causes of pollution in the creek, as well as steps for repairing it, Szenher said. That assessment has not yet been scheduled, he said.
Arkansas, Pages 14 on 10/27/2007