Leaders of the Buffalo River Watershed Alliance have penned a letter to the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality (cough) that justifiably criticizes that agency's failure to include three primary tributaries of the Buffalo National River on its latest official list of impaired Arkansas streams, despite water-quality studies by two federal agencies that justify doing just that.
The organization, some 1,200 members strong, is headed by Gordon Watkins of Newton County. Their letter to Jim Wise of the agency's water division explains pretty much what I've outlined in a previous column: Big Creek, Mill Creek, and Bear Creek should be included on the 303(d) list prepared for the Environmental Protection Agency due to water-quality data collected by both the National Park Service and the U.S. Geological Survey.
But the state agency says the deadline for inclusion on its 2016 list has passed and the next one won't be prepared until 2018, although its final 2016 draft isn't even due until April 1. The alliance and many others in Arkansas believe that delay ensures another two years of continued elevated E. coli levels and/or decreased oxygen levels when the evidence is clear those problems already are happening.
"We are concerned that waste from this facility is making its way into the ground and surface water and that it is negatively impacting Big Creek and the Buffalo National River," the alliance writes, noting that the agency has a responsibility to follow up on warnings of water-quality impairment, especially those from the Park Service and Geological Survey.
"Whether or not Big Creek, Mill Creek or Bear Creek are included on the 2016 303(d) list is secondary to the larger issue of impairment of the river. [The Department of Environmental Quality] first and foremost should take heed of the [Park Service] warnings, increase its monitoring of these streams, take all necessary steps to determine the sources of impairment and eliminate their impact on the Buffalo National River.
"It's discouraging to know that, since 2008, [the agency's] recommendations for 303(d) listings have not been approved by the Environmental Protection Agency due to the inability or unwillingness ... to comply with federal standards. This is unacceptable and stands in the way of the state's ability to address and correct impairment of Arkansas lakes, streams and groundwater. [Environmental Quality] should make every effort to bring its regulations into compliance with federal requirements ... so it can properly protect the waters of the state."
The group also sent a letter to agency Director Becky Keogh, dated Oct. 6, pointing out the documented dissolved-oxygen problem discovered on Big Creek. But apparently for the agency, it wasn't early or thorough enough to make its impaired streams list final deadline three weeks from now. This smells more to me like a continuation of more political do-si-dos when it comes to effectively dealing with the Cargill-supplied hog factory wrongheadedly permitted into the pristine watershed in 2012.
Mystery suspension
What the heck was that about? First the largest of 14 fraternities at the University of Arkansas is suddenly hit with an unexplained suspension by its national officials, which meant the sky caved in on its more than 200 members for three days.
Then, on the third day the mystery suspension slapped on Kappa Sigma by its national office (for reasons also unspoken by the university) is suddenly lifted and the fraternity regains life as if nothing had happened.
Call me bamfoozled since I've always believed an investigation of allegations against everything from people to fraternities should proceed the harsh sentence and stigma of a suspension, especially accusations that turn out to be unwarranted. The chapter's suspension story was widely circulated for three days until the national office basically proclaimed, "Whoops, our bad. Please carry on as if nothing ever happened and, no, we won't explain."
So this latest slapdown had to have been a harrowing time for Arkansas' Kappa Sigs and their thousands of alums, which include Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones and acclaimed architect E. Fay Jones.
I can understand the need for national offices and the university to keep a taut rein on fraternities (and sororities, for that matter). But amid the zeal of policing and enforcement, it would be prudent to determine truth and consequential guilt before issuing penalties based on an unproven accusation, then having to retract it three days after so many headlines and needless angst.
------------v------------
Mike Masterson's column appears regularly in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Email him at mmasterson@arkansasonline.com.
Editorial on 03/08/2016