By Wally Kennedy

wkennedy@joplinglobe.com

It was no surprise to Darvin Bentlage, of Barton County, that the North Fork of Spring River has been identified as impaired by the Missouri Department of Natural Resources and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

“It’s impaired because of ammonia and the lack of dissolved oxygen,” Bentlage said. “It’s something that can be corrected with proper management.”

Bentlage believes the problem is caused by the spreading of hog manure and poultry litter as fertilizer that then runs off into North Fork, a tributary to Spring River. Crop farmers use urea fertilizer, too.

“If they can keep the manure and fertilizer from going into the ditches, there would not be a problem,” he said. “But that means some of their farmland must be used to create buffers to prevent that from happening.”

Coming up with ways to remedy water pollution is the objective of Section 303(d) of the federal Clean Water Act, said John Ford, head of the DNR’s water protection program.

That section requires that each state submit every two years a list of water bodies that are impaired. If a water body is placed on the list, the DNR must attempt to correct the problem, if it can. The EPA is the final arbiter on which waters are placed on the list.

But the EPA and the DNR are now in a tug of war over which water bodies should go on the list that was created for 2006. The DNR also submitted a list of some water bodies it wanted to delist.

After reviewing the list, the EPA agreed with the state that 61 streams and rivers should be listed, and that 42 should be delisted. But, the EPA would not approve the delisting of 49 other water bodies. And after examining state data, the EPA also added 86 water bodies to the list.

John B. Askew, the EPA’s Region 7 administrator, said, “After an extensive and exhaustive review of the relevant and available data, EPA believes that Missouri should have identified more waters on its impaired-waters list.”

Seventeen streams in Southwest Missouri have been identified as impaired. Six of them were added to the list by the EPA. The EPA also declined to delist two of them.

Some creeks, such as Jasper County’s Center Creek and Turkey Creek, where lead, cadmium and bacteria are the pollutants, have long been on the impaired list. But some of the others that have been listed reflect problems associated with mercury, bacteria and low dissolved oxygen.

Ford, with the DNR, said: “The EPA added a number of waters to the 2006 list because of a very strict interpretation of the federal Clean Water Act. Our interpretation was a little looser. We have a basic disagreement over the issue of dissolved oxygen.”

Ford said some streams in Missouri have low levels of dissolved oxygen in the summer. He said the DNR is of the opinion that what is being observed is a natural process unrelated to human impact. The DNR, he said, does not believe it should commit staff time to something that is not a problem.

Another disagreement with the EPA is over mercury, which is found in most water bodies in the state because of global cycling of the toxic substance in the atmosphere.

“All waters of the state are affected to some degree,” Ford said. “We, through our tests, were aware of a few waters. We did not list them because people would think that other streams were OK when, in fact, they were not. We now have more data and are able to list 90 streams for the 2008 list of impaired waters.”

Another dispute is over bacteria and what constitutes an acceptable level. Ford said the EPA rejected the DNR’s standard as too lenient. The EPA added 23 streams to the list because of bacteria.

Ken Midkiff, chairman of the Sierra Club’s Clean Water Campaign in Missouri, said the DNR’s decision not to list some streams polluted with bacteria was troubling.

“It is particularly of concern that a number of the streams that the DNR and the Clean Water Commission had left off their list are impaired by bacteria,” he said. “These streams are hazardous to human health and are situated in or near major metropolitan areas. Thankfully, the EPA did the right thing.”

With the 2008 list under development, Ford said the DNR is getting closer to resolving its differences with the EPA.

Ford said specific causes of water pollution can be addressed if the source is easily identified. But with farmland, it’s more difficult to pinpoint all of the contributing sources.

“That’s why we have watershed groups forming down there in Southwest Missouri to help local residents determine ways to reduce pollutants from entering a water body,” he said. “We have two citizen groups working on the upper and lower ends of Shoal Creek, and other groups working on the James River and Spring River.”





Comment period



A public comment period on the EPA’s proposal with regard to Missouri’s impaired streams ends on Nov. 24. The EPA will consider written comments in reaching its final decision on the water bodies to be identified for inclusion. Comments may be sent to Rebecca Landewe, Water Quality Management Branch, EPA Region 7, 901 N. Fifth St., Kansas City, KS 66101.





Impaired streams





The EPA’s list of impaired streams by county in Southwest Missouri is as follows.

Barry: 4 miles of Shoal Creek were added because of low dissolved oxygen.

Barton: 51.5 miles of the North Fork of Spring River remain on the list because of ammonia.

Jasper: 7.5 miles of Blackberry Creek were added because of sulfate and chloride; 7 miles of Turkey Creek remain on the list because of cadmium, but bacteria also has been identified as a pollutant; 26 miles of Center Creek remain on the list because of cadmium and lead; 58.5 miles of the Spring River remain on the list because of bacteria (part of the river is in Lawrence County).

Lawrence: 9 miles of Clear Creek were added because of bacteria, and 6 miles of the creek remain on the list because of low dissolved oxygen and nutrients (portions of the creek are in Barry and Newton counties); 4.5 miles of Douger Branch remain on the list because of cadmium and lead.

McDonald: A small stretch of Cave Spring Branch, which receives wastewater from the Simmons poultry plant near Southwest City, remains on the list; 26 miles of Indian Creek remain on the list because of bacteria (part of the creek is in Newton County).

Newton: 4 miles of Capp’s Creek remain on the list because of bacteria; 4.5 miles of Hickory Creek remain on the list because of bacteria; 8.5 miles of Lost Creek remain on the list because of bacteria.

Vernon: 15 miles of Clear Creek were added to the list because of low dissolved oxygen; 17 miles of Little Drywood Creek were added because of low dissolved oxygen; 16 miles of the Little Osage River were not delisted because of low dissolved oxygen; 49 miles of the Marmaton River were not delisted because of low dissolved oxygen; 5.5 miles of the West Fork of Drywood Creek were added because of low dissolved oxygen.

The EPA’s complete list of impaired streams in Missouri and other documents are available via www.epa.gov/region07/news_events/legal/index.htm.