Conservation plan adds 2 watersheds
The state’s new plan for managing indirect sources of water pollution has added two watersheds as priorities for pollution prevention projects.
The Lower Ouachita-Smackover and Lower Little River watersheds are now included among nine other watersheds in higher need of conservation services.
The Arkansas Natural Resources Commission’s Nonpoint Source Pollution Management Plan becomes effective Oct. 1, the beginning of the federal fiscal year, said Tony Ramick, the commission’s fiscal grants manager. The plan lasts through 2023.
The Lower Ouachita River has seen its pH levels change, meaning its dissolved oxygen levels need to be monitored, Ramick said. Sediment is a problem in the Lower Little River watershed, he said.
Seven streams in the Lower Ouachita-Smackover watershed were placed on the 2016 list of impaired waters by the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality. They don’t support existing designated uses for recreation and don’t support fisheries, according to the list. The causes of the impairment are industrial discharge and “unknown.”
The department described the Lower Little River watershed as mostly good in 2016 but noted that the Rolling Fork River has “historically had elevated nutrient concentrations.” The Rolling Fork River was listed as impaired in 2016 for sulfates, thought to be from a wastewater treatment plant. Mine Creek also has higher nutrient levels, thought to come from a Tyson Foods wastewater treatment plant in Nashville, according to the department.
Five stream segments in the Lower Little River watershed were listed as impaired in the 2016 list.
The designation makes the watersheds priorities for half of the commission’s U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s 319 grant program, which amounted to about $3 million this fiscal year, Ramick said.
The Lower Little River watershed will be among the top priorities because it has a watershed management plan, Ramick said. The Lower Ouachita-Smackover watershed will be second-tier priority because it does not, he said.