Environment notebook

Hazard-reporting app iPhone ready

An iPhone and iPad app for reporting environmental hazards to the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality is now available in the Apple App Store, the department announced in a news release Wednesday.

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The department released its first such app in November in the Google Play Store for Android phones.

Once the app is downloaded, users can file complaints by describing potential violations, along with their locations or driving directions to the locations. Photos taken in the app will be tagged with GPS coordinates if users enable GPS location services on their mobile devices.

A department inspector will then follow up on the complaints, the news release stated.

State delists river with less sediment

A 2.5-mile segment of the Illinois River in Northwest Arkansas has been removed from the state's 2006 Clean Water Act list of impaired waters, according to the Arkansas Natural Resources Commission.

The segment was originally placed on the list by the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality but was removed this year after "turbidity levels" fell through efforts to reduce sediment runoff in the river's watershed.

Turbidity is a water quality measurement that refers to the murkiness of the water caused by soil, algae and other substances.

The Illinois River watershed has been a point of contention between Arkansas and Oklahoma after Oklahoma officials sued Arkansas poultry companies, claiming that they caused pollution in the river.

Efforts to address this 2.5-mile stretch of the river included implementing best management practices and assistance for carrying them out in the watershed, public education, and other low-impact projects, the commission noted in a report on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's website.

Melbourne hearing set on mine permit

The Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality will host a public hearing July 7 on a new sand and gravel mining permit near Oxford in Izard County, the department announced in a news release.

Spring Creek Materials of West Plains, Mo., is applying for a permit at a site known as the Cooper Mine.

The permit would allow the company to extract sand and gravel from the mine.

The company's application indicates that sand and gravel extraction would be done using a track hoe, wheeled loader and dump truck, department spokesman Katherine Benenati said.

Cooper Mine was a site of sand and gravel extraction two years ago for Mountain Home Concrete. When the Environmental Quality Department discovered the company's activities, the department and Mountain Home Concrete entered into a consent administrative order for the company to do a stream restoration project where the company had removed material.

Spring Creek Materials has not previously had a mining permit in Arkansas.

The public hearing will be held in Melbourne at 6 p.m. in the Melbourne Community Room, at 63 Municipal Drive.

Metro on 06/20/2015

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