By Roger McKinney
rmckinney@joplinglobe.com
BAXTER SPRINGS, Kan. — Clean drinking water, and healthy and abundant aquatic life were among the top best-case scenarios for the future of the Spring River watershed determined Thursday by members of a fledgling group.
Safe water recreation was a third priority.
Among the worst-case scenarios: a river polluted beyond repair, and contamination and disappearance of aquatic life.
The Spring River Watershed Restoration and Protection Strategy group at its fourth meeting also heard about watershed protection groups in Missouri and Oklahoma. The group is supported by See-Kan Resource Conservation and Development and Pittsburg State University. Shirley Drew with PSU led the meeting.
Craig Jones, assistant director of the Harry S. Truman Coordinating Council in Southwest Missouri, presented information to the group about activities of the Elk River Watershed Improvement Association, the Southwest Missouri Water Quality Improvement Project, the Upper Shoal Creek Watershed Improvement Group in Barry County and the Shoal Creek Watershed Partnership.
Jones said the growing population in Southwest Missouri, economic development and agricultural issues are providing challenges to the water quality of the rivers and streams.
Carl Metcalf and John Gillette, with Grand Lake of the Cherokees Watershed Foundation, provided an update on its progress in Oklahoma. The group also is new.
“We’re at the end of the pipeline, guys,” Metcalf said. “We get all that stuff that’s in the water.”
Metcalf said the group strives to be cooperative rather than confrontational, and it wants members from Kansas and Missouri.
The group had targeted issues facing the Spring River watershed at a previous meeting. The top issue was water quality, which includes contamination by heavy metals and fecal bacteria. A secondary issue was water quantity, with depletion of the area aquifer by large consumers on the Missouri side.
Another issue facing the watershed, of still less importance, is stability of the riverbanks.
Thursday’s discussion included problems with septic systems. Jones, in his presentation, said 70 percent of septic tanks in Missouri are considered to be failing.
Jim Triplett, PSU biology department chairman, said the soil in Southeast Kansas is mostly clay, which is not good for septic tanks.
“It’s not a matter of if, but when, it’s going to fail,” Triplett said.
Carl Hayes, with the Cherokee County Health Department, has checked with state officials about establishing a revolving loan fund to help residents replace failing septic systems. Hayes said Thursday that cost-share funds are available that would pay up to 50 percent of the cost of replacing a failing septic system.
Members decided that the group would continue meeting monthly, with the next meeting scheduled for Sept. 6.
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