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Water quality rules up for public discussion Monday, Feb 27, 2006 By Rob Moritz Arkansas News Bureau LITTLE ROCK - Among a deluge of public meetings over the next few months, state environmental officials will consider proposed changes in water quality standards, including one that would allow the damming of one of Arkansas' most pristine waterways. The Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality has scheduled nine public meetings around the state in March and April to discuss the state's water quality standards. The meetings are mandated under the Federal Clean Air Act. ADEQ is to use public input from the meetings to rework the standards and present a revised version to state Pollution Control and Ecology Commission in October, department spokesman Doug Szenher said. Meanwhile, the commission plans to hold a separate set of public hearings on a proposed change in water quality standards affecting Lee Creek, a northwest Arkansas waterway known as a haven for fishing and whitewater kayaking. The River Valley Regional Water District, which includes all cities and water districts in Crawford County, wants the commission to change Regulation No. 2 so it can build a dam on a portion Lee Creek to provide drinking water for its customers. Current standards prohibit water districts from damming extraordinary resource waters for customer use. In January, the commission granted the water district's request for what is known as "third-party rulemaking" after being presented with a petition. Environmental groups oppose the request, saying any decisions concerning extraordinary resource waterways should be made after lengthy discussion. They also worry that changing the regulation would strip away important current protections for extraordinary resource waters. Glen Hooks, regional representative for the Sierra Club, said all the regulations within Arkansas' water quality standards should be discussed at the same time. One specific regulation should not receive special recognition, he said. "It seems parallel, but wasteful," Hooks said last week. "I'm hopeful we'll reach the same result at the end, that you shouldn't mess with the ERWs." Szenher said he expects the Lee Creek damming issue to be discussed at both sets of hearings. "The commission wanted to have them separate," while the department wanted just one set of public hearings, he said. During the commission's January meeting, commissioners expressed concern about addressing the protected waterways issue in a larger discussion of the overall water quality standards. Some feared the issue would get lost in the larger and more complicated state water quality issues. Commissioner Randy Young, the executive director of the Arkansas Natural Resources Commission, said last week that he voted to have separate public meetings. "The River Valley third-party petition is on a very specific proposed rule change," Young said. "Having that hearing separate will enable the public to really focus on that specific change and not get lost in the shuffle." The first of the nine public water quality hearings is set for March 2 at Northridge Middle School in Van Buren. Other hearings are scheduled for March 9 at Arkansas State University-Mountain Home; March 16 at South Arkansas Community College in El Dorado; March 23 at the Clarion Inn at Fayetteville; March 30 at Henderson State University in Arkadelphia; April 6 at Nettleton High School Commons in Jonesboro; and April 13 at the ADEQ headquarters in Little Rock. All the meetings are to begin at 6 p.m., except the meeting in Little Rock, which is to begin 1 p.m. The first hearing on the regulation relating to Lee Creek is scheduled for March 27 at Northridge Middle School in Van Buren, with others to follow April 3 at ASU-Mountain Home; April 10 at the Jones Center for Families Chapel in Springdale; and April 17 at ADEQ headquarters. All of those meetings also are scheduled to begin 6 p.m., except for a 1 p.m. meeting April 17 in Little Rock. |
