National Park Service officials have asked the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality to list three tributaries to the Buffalo National River on the department's biennial list of polluted water bodies in Arkansas, but so far the department has declined.
The park service has asked to add Mill Creek, Bear Creek and Big Creek, but the department has argued that the data obtained during the "period of record" -- before April 1, 2015 -- don't show that the waterways are polluted. The department uses five years of data to determine pollution or lack of pollution.
The list is the 303(d) list, which is required under the federal Clean Water Act and is overseen by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Placement on the list -- if the list is approved by the EPA -- can require studies to determine appropriate limits for cities, businesses or others seeking permits to discharge wastewater into a particular body of water.
The EPA has not approved an Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality list since 2008, but being on the list would mean that the department could continue to require additional water monitoring on those waterways when issuing wastewater discharge permits to new facilities or renewing existing permits.
The National Park Service used its own measurements and U.S. Geological Survey measurements from 2015 as the basis for its request in October that the three tributaries be classified as polluted.
The original request was not for the creeks to be placed on the 303(d) list, but for the department to acknowledge that the creeks were polluted under department regulations, said Chuck Bitting, natural resource program manager for the National Park Service at the Buffalo National River.
Now the park service is asking that the department look at the trends as indicated by the data over the past two to four years when considering the creeks for the 303(d) list, Bitting said.
The park service and the department have been discussing the service's concerns, Bitting said, and may meet again before the department sends its final draft of the 303(d) list to the EPA on April 1.
"We just want to protect our water quality as best we can because 1 million people rely on it," he said, referring to the number of people who visit the Buffalo National River each year.
In 2014, more than 1.3 million people visited the river and spent about $56.5 million at area businesses, according to National Park Service data.
Arkansas Department of Environment Quality spokesman Katherine Benenati said the data obtained for the period of record don't indicate impairment for those creeks, but the department is taking the National Park Service's data into account.
"ADEQ staff is currently reviewing the data and it will also be considered as part of the data record which will be evaluated for the next cycle occurring in 2018," she wrote in an email to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
A portion of Big Creek is where C&H Hog Farms is located. C&H Hog Farms has been the target of many Buffalo River advocates who believe that the farm has had a negative effect on the river and that the pig manure poses a threat to the water during flooding.
On Tuesday, the 44th anniversary of the federal act certifying the Buffalo River as the first national river, several people asked department officials to be mindful of the significance of the river when considering the three tributaries. They asked that the department classify the three tributaries as polluted.
"You cannot expect to have high water quality on the river if you don't have high water quality in its tributaries," Bitting told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette after that meeting.
"We want to protect our visitors from getting an infection from wading, canoeing or swimming in the Buffalo River and its tributaries within the National River boundary," he said.
The National Park Service has not determined a reason for pollutant levels at any of the sites, but Bitting noted that Bear Creek is classified as polluted because of total dissolved solids, which refers to minerals, salts, metals or other matter found in the water.
Mill Creek is a major tributary to the Buffalo River near Pruitt, providing about one-fourth to one-third of the river's downstream flow during the summer, Bitting said.
The National Park Service collected weekly water samples in the creek for more than a year and has collected more periodic samples for more than 30 years, Bitting said. Based on the National Park Service's data from 2015, the creek has elevated levels of E. coli.
The National Park Service has placed signs along Mill Creek and downstream on the Buffalo River, warning people of elevated levels of E. coli.
Downstream of the Buffalo River where it meets Mill Creek is Big Creek at Carver, where the National Park Service used U.S. Geological Survey data to determine that the amount of dissolved oxygen in the stream is too low, leaving it less hospitable to aquatic species.
The National Park Service has made a similar determination at Bear Creek near Silver Hill, which is downstream where the Buffalo River meets Big Creek.
The National Park Service sent its first letter Oct. 6 asking that the streams be classified as polluted on the basis of park service data.
In the letter to the department, park Superintendent Kevin Cheri noted that the Buffalo River downstream of the Erbie low water crossing is designated as critical habitat for the Rabbitsfoot mussel, which is listed as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act. It also provides habitat for several endangered species: the Snuffbox mussel, Gray bat, Indiana bat and the Ozark big-eared bat. The area also provides habitat for the threatened northern long-eared bat.
Cheri also wrote that the law designating the Buffalo River as a national river requires that the park be managed in "such a way that it conserves the unique scenic and scientific resources and preserves the Buffalo River as a free-flowing stream for the benefit and enjoyment of present and future generations."
Metro on 03/06/2016