Group examines ways to protect Arkansas waters

LITTLE ROCK—A group has begun a study of how the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality should implement its policy to protect the state’s waters from degradation.

The department said it’ll take the focus group’s recommendations to a stakeholder group under the Continuing Planning Process, which outlines how a state will implement its water-quality programs.

The Continuing Planning Process is required under the Clean Water Act that passed in 1975.

The state must classify its water bodies by quality and significance in a tiered system to comply with the law, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported.

The group’s members are: Ellen Carpenter, a retired department water division chief; Colene Gaston, an attorney for the Beaver Water District; John Bailey, director of environmental regulatory affairs for the Arkansas Farm Bureau; Shon Simpson, owner of GMBc & Associates environmental and engineering firm; Anna Weeks, environmental policy coordinator at the Arkansas Public Policy Panel; and Jim Malcolm, vice president and policy adviser at FTN Associates environmental and engineering firm.

Department officials submitted their proposed outline to the group on April 5. The group doesn’t have a set timeline to complete its review, but plans to meet next month.

Simpson said Arkansas should define what it would consider a cost-effective alternative to the proposal.

Arkansas and New Mexico are the only states nationwide without implementation plans, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.