By Andy Ostmeyer
aostmeyer@joplinglobe.com
Several small streams in Southwest Missouri could be exempted from state bacteria standards, and residents have through Monday to notify the Missouri Department of Natural Resources if they use the streams for swimming or other types of recreation.
Statewide, more than 90 streams are being considered for the exemption, according to Dan Sherburne, research director with the Missouri Coalition for the Environment.
For the most part, the state is looking at streams that receive discharges of wastewater from municipal sewage plants, Sherburne said. But some streams may have no permitted discharge at all while others may have industrial or domestic wastewater discharges.
The state has been doing the analysis of water-body use since 2005.
John Hoke, environmental specialist with the DNR, said scientific studies are conducted on the streams every three years, and those that do not have pools a meter deep or median stream depth of a half-meter are eligible for exemption because the state does not consider them candidates for swimming, for example.
But, he added, studies are only half the equation. The other half is how people actually and historically use them.
The streams proposed for possible exemption in Southwest Missouri are:
Glendale Fork in Barton County.
Truitt Creek in Lawrence County.
Douger Branch in Lawrence County.
Little Flat Creek northeast of Purdy in Barry County.
South Fork of Capps Creek southwest of Monett.
Carney Creek in Barry County.
If approved, the streams will be exempted from standards for fecal coliform and E. coli.
The state standard now allows no more than 200 colonies of fecal coliform or 126 colonies of E. coli per 100 milliliters of water if the streams are used for swimming or other forms of “whole body contact” in which a person might be immersed and water could get into eyes, ears or mouths. The standard is 1,800 colonies of fecal coliform and 1,134 for secondary contact if the stream is determined to be used for secondary purposes, such as wading or fishing, Hoke said.
The streams are proposed for the exemptions, according to Sherburne, because the state considers them “too shallow for recreational use.”
“If in fact people use the stream for recreation, then the state can’t exempt them,” he added.
Jason Harris, the Mindenmines wastewater and emergency operations director, said they are working to meet each of the standards set by state and federal regulators, but he said he was not aware of any recreational use of Glendale Fork into which the city discharges wastewater.
“It is probably two inches deep,” he said, and dry much of the time.
“It is a small, small stream ... at the most, maybe some deer hunters or turkey hunters had to walk through it with their boots on.”
Some of those streams being considered also are losing streams, Hoke noted, which means bacteria standards will still apply to protect groundwater because of the possible contamination of drinking water even if the stream isn’t a candidate for recreational use.
The Missouri Coalition for the Environment is calling on residents who use these streams or have used them at any time since 1975 to let the DNR know. The DNR will make recommendations for exemptions to the Missouri Clean Water Commission, which is expected to make a ruling this fall, Sherburne said. The state also will continue accepting comments after that date, and another public comment period will be held after the proposed rules are drafted.
“We are committed to protecting the (public’s) health and safety, but at the same time, we need to be careful not to put small communities and ratepayers into a position to pay higher fees to protect uses that are not attainable and do not exist,” Hoke added.
Andy Ostmeyer is the metro editor for The Joplin Globe.
Web sites
To learn more, or to fill out recreational use comment forms, go to the Missouri Department of Natural Resources’ Web site at www.dnr.mo.gov, or go the Web site of the Missouri Coalition for the Environment at www.moenviron.org.
