WEST SILOAM SPRINGS, Okla. -- A research team led by a Baylor University biologist is in the early stages of a two-year study to help determine whether the existing limit on phosphorus concentrations in streams in the Illinois River watershed should remain.
"We will have sufficient data to confidently assess the relationship between phosphorus and nuisance algae in the scenic rivers and its effects on aesthetics and water quality," said Ryan King, the main investigator and professor of biology at Baylor University.
The study will review whether a 0.037-milligrams-per-liter limit that Oklahoma imposed in 2004 "is sufficient protection or too much protection," he said.
King gave a presentation on the study during the one-day Illinois River Watershed Research and Extension Symposium on Thursday. The symposium organized by the Arkansas Water Resources Center and the Oklahoma Water Resources Center took place at the Cherokee Casino in West Siloam Springs. The Cherokee Nation sponsored the meeting.
The meeting brought together representatives of the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville, Oklahoma State University, state and federal agencies, and other organizations to highlight the variety of activities related to improving water quality within the watershed, said Brian Haggard, director of the Arkansas Water Resources Center.
Phosphorus is a nutrient that affects algae growth in streams, creeks and rivers, said Haggard, also a UA-Fayetteville professor of bioengineering. Much of the research on phosphorus in those bodies of water revolves around knowing how much phosphorus is too much and how phosphorus and other nutrients affect fish and insects.
Arkansas and Oklahoma have been in a long-running dispute over elevated concentrations of phosphorus in the Illinois River, which begins in Arkansas and flows into Oklahoma, Haggard said. In the 1990s, a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in a lawsuit between Oklahoma and Fayetteville found that the downstream state, Oklahoma, could require an upstream state, Arkansas, to meet water quality standards at the state line.
In 2005, Oklahoma sued Springdale-based Tyson Foods Inc. and five other Arkansas poultry companies, saying the use of poultry manure as fertilizer was polluting the Illinois River. A five-month trial ended Feb. 18, 2010, but U.S. District Judge Gregory Frizzell of Tulsa has yet to issue a ruling.
Oklahoma accused the poultry companies of polluting the Illinois River watershed in Oklahoma and Arkansas by allowing contract farmers to spread poultry litter, a mixture of manure and poultry bedding materials. Oklahoma sought to stop the practice, but attorneys for the poultry industry argued that a moratorium wasn't needed and would cause an economic hardship on the industry.
In February 2013, Arkansas Attorney General Dustin McDaniel and Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt announced an agreement to establish a joint committee responsible for determining a phosphorus water-quality standard for the Illinois River basin.
Gov. Mike Beebe appointed three Arkansas representatives, including Haggard. Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin appointed three Oklahoma representatives. The committee hired King, and Arkansas is paying $600,000 for the study.
Sources of phosphorus include poultry litter and clean water discharged from wastewater-treatment plants, King said. The water coming out of wastewater treatment plants has higher levels of phosphorus than naturally occurs, and poultry litter is high in phosphorus, King said.
Water runoff, such as from a heavy rain, carries phosphorus into creeks and streams. The phosphorus also can percolate through the soil into groundwater, which is discharged into streams, King said.
King's study involves collecting samples from 35 various water sites within the Illinois River watershed. The first sampling took place in June and included water, algae, snails and aquatic insects, Kings said. The sampling will continue every two months through June 2016.
Results of the study will be used to compile a final report that's expected toward the end of 2016, King said.
Derek Smithee, the committee's Oklahoma co-chairman, was involved in establishing the limit of 0.037 milligrams per liter for phosphorus concentration in waters that are part of the Illinois River system. The limit was set in 2002 and finalized in 2004, but compliance wasn't required for a 10-year period, he said.
Oklahoma later agreed to re-evaluate the 0.037-milligrams-per-liter limit by 2012, which Arkansas officials in the past have argued is too low.
The 2013 agreement allowed the states to continue working together on improving water quality while avoiding a costly and lengthy legal dispute, the agreement to form the committee states. The study of the phosphorus limit was included in that agreement.
After two years, the committee will work with King to reach a consensus, Smithee said.
NW News on 09/26/2014