— A local citizens coalition urged federal regulators this week to move forward with plans to set water-quality standards for the Illinois River watershed.

Save the Illinois River Inc., a Tahlequah-based organization founded in 1984, expressed concern about potential delays in a letter to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

STIR President Denise Deason-Toyne said the concern is based on a recent letter sent to EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson by six federal lawmakers from Arkansas and Oklahoma. That letter, Deason-Toyne said, appears to “be an effort to steer the EPA’s ... study in order to prolong and confuse its completion and implementation.”

“Those responsible for this effort may also be targeting the Oklahoma Scenic Rivers phosphorus limit, which has been approved by the EPA, our governor and the Oklahoma Legislature,” Deason-Toyne wrote in the coalition’s letter to the EPA. “STIR hopes that EPA will not take any actions that could delay the completion and implementation of the total maximum daily load for the Illinois River watershed.”

The total maximum daily load is a calculation establishing the maximum amounts for any pollutant introduced into a body of water and still safely maintain water-quality standards.

STIR’s letter was submitted in response to a Dec. 9 letter signed by U.S. Sens. Tom Coburn and Jim Inhofe, U.S. Rep. Dan Boren and three congressional delegates from Arkansas. That letter, circulated by U.S. Sen. John Boozman of Arkansas, urged the agency to “avoid the use of flawed modeling ... based on unsound information” in the development of Illinois River water-quality standards.

The six lawmakers also expressed concerns about any model that would “inflict unneeded and inappropriate control mandates.” Boren  said the letter was sent out of concern the EPA followed its rules while developing standards for the watershed.

“We have seen instances where the EPA has overstepped its bounds in the past,” Boren said. “We want to ensure that any regulation of the Illinois River watershed does not place an unnecessary burden on local economies.” 

Deason-Toyne said claims that clean-water regulations have a negative economic impact are unfounded.

“Allegations that clean water regulations may adversely impact our region’s economic development are unsubstantiated and, in fact, are opposite to STIR’s belief that clean water is good for business and for our quality of life,” Deason-Toyne said.

Inhofe said the water-quality standards being developed by the EPA for the Illinois River watershed “should be done in an open and transparent way” that involves “all relevant stakeholders.” The letter was sent to convey that message to the EPA administrator.

“Unfortunately, some major TMDLs have had scientific questions raised following their implementation,” Inhofe said. “In these instances, it is nearly impossible for stakeholders to buy into the reductions and may not end up cleaning up the waters they were intended to address. We do not want that to happen on the Illinois River.”

Inhofe said the model being developed by EPA to establish water-quality standards for the watershed will be used in the decision-making process for decades.

“Having the best model, based on the most current and best available science, is essential to ensure that these difficult decisions are made in an accurate and fair way,” Inhofe said. “I want to make sure that EPA has devoted enough resources to developing this model and that proper stakeholder input from both states can be vetted fully, and the model tested and adjustments made prior to finalizing the TMDL.”

Deason-Toyne said STIR also supports he need to adequately fund the EPA study and use of the best available science in setting water-quality standards. STIR urged the use of all available research available from the U.S. Geological Survey. That research, Deason-Toyne said, shows much of the pollution within the Illinois River watershed from nonpoint sources such as stormwater runoff from fields fertilized with poultry wastes.

According to reports cited by STIR in its letter to the EPA, an estimated 419,000 tons of poultry was produced within the Illinois River watershed in 2010. Poultry production in two northwestern Arkansas counties accounted for about 82 percent of that waste. Evidence presented in a lawsuit filed by the state of Oklahoma against a number of Arkansas poultry companies estimated only 20 percent of that waste was being removed from the watershed.

The letter sent to the EPA by the congressmen, however, cited significant decreases in “flow-adjusted monthly phosphorus loads” into the Illinois River watershed during the past few years. The reduction, the lawmakers state, was possible due to a $225 million investment in wastewater treatment facilities in Arkansas and Oklahoma and efforts to control nonpoint source pollutants such as poultry wastes.

Doyne-Tyson said the EPA study could determine the source of pollutants flowing into the watershed and whether efforts to curb those pollutants are working. But that will only happen if the study is free from political influence.

“Northwest Arkansas politicians and developers have lobbied EPA, Congress and Oklahoma agencies in and effort to weaken the ... phosphorus limit due to become effective this July,” Doyne-Tyson said. “The support now shown by Oklahoma’s senators and congressman for these opponents is a great source of disappointment to us.”

Reach D.E. Smoot at (918) 684-2901 or dsmoot@muskogeephoenix.com