Good News - Cooperation

[Danoinark]

Pact to protect shared waters set for signing

BY ROBERT J. SMITH, from the NW Ark Times

Posted on Thursday, November 13, 2008

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The governors of Arkansas and Missouri expect to sign an agreement later this month promising to protect watersheds and aquifers that cross state lines.

Missouri pushed for the pact, and it’s been in development for months, Randy Young, director of the Arkansas Natural Resources Commission, said Wednesday.

“It’s all about cooperation and ensuring cooperation on all the shared watersheds,” Young said. “Missouri has been wanting to do that for several years and they made another inquiry last year about whether we’d be interested, and we were.” A signing ceremony with Missouri Gov. Matt Blunt and Arkansas Gov. Mike Beebe tentatively is set Nov. 24 at Bass Pro Shops in Springfield, Mo.

“It is an issue that we know Gov. Blunt’s office has worked very hard on, and we’re always happy to be able to cooperate with our neighbor states to get ahead of any potential issues,” said Matt DeCample, a Beebe spokesman.

Edward Swaim, an attorney for the Arkansas Natural Resources Commission, said a memorandum he gave to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette is a final version. Kerry Cordray, a spokesman for the Missouri Department of Natural Resources, said “there are still some final points being agreed upon.” The document shows the states intend to cooperate regarding “water quality and water quantity issues involving surface and ground water resources.” It calls for Missouri and Arkansas agencies dealing with water issues to meet at least annually, starting next year with the first meeting in Arkansas. The meeting would move to Missouri in 2010.

The states also would produce a biennial report to the governors on the status of the agreements. The first report is due to the governors’ offices on Jan. 31, 2010.

The document doesn’t describe how the states would pay for water quality studies or watershed modeling that could be done by the states. Studies and modeling are mentioned in the agreement.

“It’s an agreement that both states recognize the importance of maintaining water quality,” said Teresa Marks, director of the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality. “It does have some significance. Meeting once a year and talking about the issues will allow us to work on issues before they become real problems for either state.” Arkansas and Missouri share many water resources, including the Alluvial and Sparta-Memphis aquifers, which span much of eastern Arkansas and stretch north of Missouri’s bootheel region.

The Springfield Plateau and Ozark aquifers include large areas of northern Arkansas and almost all of southern Missouri.

There are joint watersheds, too, like the one that feeds the White River. The river starts south of Fayetteville, flows north to create Beaver Lake, then flows into Missouri north of Eureka Springs and into Table Rock Lake. It returns to Arkansas near Diamond City in Boone County, forming Bull Shoals Lake.

The agreement reached with Missouri will have the states functioning differently than Arkansas and Oklahoma do as members of the Arkansas-Oklahoma Arkansas River Compact Commission, Young said. There are similarities, however.

Congress created the compact commission in 1972, and the entity has three representatives from each state. Their focus is on water quality and quantity.

Commission members have been uncertain for years about their clout when the states have disputes.

The states did agree in 1996 to set a goal of reducing phosphorus by 40 percent at eight sites in the Illinois River watershed. The river starts in Arkansas and flows into Oklahoma.

The commission is not involved in the federal lawsuit filed by Oklahoma Attorney General Drew Edmondson in 2005 against eight poultry companies with operations in Arkansas, although Arkansas officials sought the commission’s involvement.

A year after Edmondson sued the companies, Beebe, who was Arkansas attorney general at the time, asked the federal court to order Edmondson to take his pollution complaint about the Illinois River to the commission rather than federal court.

The federal court denied Beebe’s request.

The commission, of which Richard Seybolt of Monkey Island, Okla., is the nonvoting federal chairman, will hold its annual meeting Dec. 11 in Fort Smith. The session will be in Oklahoma next year.

Seybolt said he’s encouraged by the prospect of Missouri and Arkansas communicating about water. “Any time two states get together with regard to water issues, it’s got to be good,” Seybolt said. “We need to communicate between states and have common goals.”

[Al Agnew]

That's interesting...I wonder exactly why the AR/OK commission didn't get involved with the Illinois River dispute. It's also interesting that the only watersheds of any significance where Missouri could suffer from Arkansas problems are the White River and the Elk River (since Little Sugar Creek comes out of AR). Everything else flows from Missouri into Arkansas--Spring, Eleven Point, Current, Black, St. Francis. However, the upper White and Little Sugar flow out of the part of AR that probably has the biggest potential and actual pollution problems from both urban development and CAFOs.