Nutrient trading proposal lacks method to measure

The Fayetteville City Council is to be commended for putting the brakes on the nutrient-trading idea that could have gone into effect for the entire state.

The reporter explained nutrient trading with the analogy that if your trash can is full, maybe your neighbor, for a small fee, will let you put some trash in his not-so-full can. A neighborly idea, sure. But the analogy does not quite work.

Let’s say that trash is actually the nutrient phosphorus, which can do great harm to lakes and rivers and is likely the culprit for recent toxic algal blooms in Fayetteville. Of course, the trash can in this analogy is our lakes and rivers. Let’s say the Fayetteville wastewater treatment plant removes more phosphorus than required, by law (in fact, they actually do). So perhaps they sell their credit to a factory that wants to dump high phosphorus wastewater into a stream. A win-win for everyone, yes? But here’s the hitch: Arkansas doesn’t have a standard for how much phosphorus is allowed in our lakes and streams.

We need to set numerical limits on phosphorus and other harmful nutrients in Arkansas waterways. Our friends in Oklahoma have set a limit in the Illinois River when it crosses the state line, which is .037 mg/l. Arkansas exceeds that goal about 90 percent of the time. Clearly, we have a problem.

But let’s go on, and say that Fayetteville sells their credit to a factory somewhere upstream of Lake Winona. Fayetteville gets some money, the factory saves some money and everyone is happy. Happy, that is, until the phosphorus that really should have been removed from the factory’s effluent causes an algal bloom in Lake Winona, Little Rock’s water supply. It just happens to be an algae species that makes a toxin called microcystin — which irritates the skin and is toxic to the liver.

This isn’t a far-fetched scenario. Fayetteville has detected microcystin in Lake Fayetteville this year and also in the pond out by the Bryce Davis dog park. The toxin is a known dog killer. Could microcystin shut down a water supply? Yes. In 2014, in Toledo, Ohio, the water supply was deemed unsafe to drink and to shower in for three days because of this toxin. In 2017, 169 microcystin-producing algal blooms were reported around the country. (http:// ewg.org/toxicalgalblooms).

Could nutrient trading work? Maybe. But the trading needs to be within a limited watershed, and the results need to be carefully monitored. Monitoring is expensive, but what is more important than clean water? Fayetteville council members also wanted to see a long-term commitment to reduce the level of nitrogen and phosphorus in watersheds. The City Council recognized the status quo is not enough. Our “natural” state needs to get back to the level of water quality that we once enjoyed. This is not impossible, but it will take commitment and the clear and expressed will of the people.

MARGARET MEAD BRITAIN Fayetteville