Oklahoma Governor Brad Henry has approved new water quality standards submitted by the Oklahoma Water Resources Board.  The standards include greater protection for Lake Tenkiller, one of Oklahoma's most valuable reservoirs.  Lake Tenkiller now is designated a High Quality Water.

 High Quality Waters (HQW) are those waters of the state which possess existing water quality which exceeds that necessary to support propagation of fishes, shellfishes, wildlife, and recreation.

No discharge of any pollutant to a water designated HQW may lower existing water quality.

Save the Illinois River, Inc. (STIR) commends the OWRB and planners for other state agencies who recognized and corrected an oversight that had left Lake Tenkiller without any protective water quality standard.  The Illinois River above Lake Tenkiller is a State Scenic River and enjoys the highest water quality protection.  But the upper Illinois River above Tenkiller Dam upstream to Barren Fork Creek, including Tenkiller Reservoir, did not have a protective standard.

With support from Save the Illinois River, Inc., the Oklahoma Scenic Rivers Commission, and the Greater Tenkiller Area Association, the OWRB amended its rules to give Lake Tenkiller the HQW standard.  Scores of STIR members supported the move with letters and postcards.  There was no opposition.  U.S. EPA approval of the action is expected.

The action grew out of the OWRB Water Quality Programs Division's 2003 triennial revision of Oklahoma's Water Quality Standards.

The lower Illinois River from Tenkiller Dam to the headwaters of Robert S. Kerr Reservoir is designated a HQW.