Pollution committee holds off on Huntsville’s water proposal

Huntsville will wait another month before asking the Pollution Control and Ecology Commission to approve changes to the state’s water-quality standards.

Charles Nestrud, who filed the petition this month to allow the city’s wastewater treatment plant to increase its mineral discharges in certain waterways in Northwest Arkansas, presented the proposal to the commission’s regulations committee on Friday. The committee deferred action until its next meetingso city officials could further discuss the proposal with the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality.

The three waterways that would be affected by the change - Town Branch, Holman Creek and War Eagle Creek - feed into the White River and then to Beaver Lake, which serves communities throughout Northwest Arkansas.

A spokesman said the department is still working to see how state water-quality regulations will be affected by legislation passed by the Legislature this year and setto take effect in August.

Critics of the regulation change, including the Department of Health and the Beaver Lake Water District, expressed concerns about how the proposal would affect the water supply.

“There are just a lot of question marks. I think it’s really premature at this time to go forward,” water district attorney Colene Gaston said.

State water-quality regulations limit mineral concentrations in drinking water sources to 250 milligrams per liter for chlorides andsulphates and 500 milligrams per liter for “total dissolved solids,” which are defined as the total organic and inorganic material contained in a water sample.

All waterways in the state are treated as potential drinking-water sources until they are removed from consideration by a scientific study. Act 954, which will take effect in August, would require only current drinking-water sources to have that designation.

Huntsville officials have asked the commission to raise the threshold for total dissolved solids in Town Branch, Holman Creek and War Eagle Creek to 525 milligrams per liter and to remove the streams’ designation as drinking-water sources.

Environmental Department Director Teresa Marks told the commission that she did not object to the initiation of the rule-making process for the proposed changes, which would open up the proposal to public comment. But shesaid the department is still working to determine how it would implement Act 954 and how it would affect water-quality standards around the state.

Nestrud said he plans to present the regulation to the commission at its next meeting.

In other news, West Fraser Inc., which operates a lumber mill in Leola, withdrew its petition to begin limited construction activities at the site while its modified air-permit application was pending with the department.

Marks, who recommended denying the request, said granting the petition would violate federal environmental laws. The department would work with the company to allow certain work such as tree clearing to go forward, she said, but “pre-construction activities,” specifically pouring concrete at the site while the application is pending, was prohibited.

The company withdrew the petition after agreeing to meet with department officials on what activities were allowed under the law.

Northwest Arkansas, Pages 9 on 06/29/2013

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