Changes OK'd to river markers

Skeptical, EPA tells agency

The Arkansas Pollution Control and Ecology Commission approved new minerals standards Friday for parts of the Red River and the Little River that will now be reviewed by the U.S Environmental Protection Agency, which has expressed concerns about the new standards.

The new standards reflect the current conditions of the rivers and place the Arkansas standards for the rivers on par with those of neighboring states.

Allan Gates, an attorney representing the Domtar paper company and Southwestern Electric Power Co., said the change will keep the rivers from being considered impaired streams and keep the two companies from having to meet stricter standards related to that designation.

He said the conditions of the rivers are impacted very little by what the companies do and that the high mineral content in the water is primarily related to minerals coming in from other states, such as naturally high salt content in the Red River in Texas and Oklahoma.

The rule approved Friday also calls for the removal of the drinking-water designations for both rivers, neither of which are used for drinking water, and for an increase in water-temperature standards. The latter change would reflect the current temperature.

SWEPCO, which owns and operates the John W. Turk Jr. Power Plant in Fulton, is seeking permission to increase the concentration of minerals in the Red River from the mouth of the Little River to the Louisiana state line and to remove the unused drinking-water designation from that same area.

It also wants permission to increase the standard temperature of the water in the Little River, from Millwood Lake to the Red River, from 86 degrees to 89.6 degrees.

Montreal-based Domtar Corp., which operates a paper mill in Ashdown along the Red River, is asking to increase the concentration of minerals in the Red River from the Oklahoma state line to the mouth of the Little River and to increase the concentration of sulfate from the mouth of the Little River to the Louisiana state line.

Neither company is planning on increasing the amount of minerals they discharge into the rivers, Gates said. The commission on Friday approved the rule-making, first proposed last year, without dissent.

The changes now head to the EPA, which wrote two letters to the state Department of Environmental Quality this week that outline the agency's concern about the changes based on what it says is insufficient research.

"We are concerned that the supporting use attainability analysis (UAA) did not provide a clear basis to support the contention that only naturally occurring sources of TDS are causing the impairment in the Little River," Russell Nelson, regional standards coordinator in the watershed management section for the EPA in Dallas, wrote Tuesday in reference to the SWEPCO request.

"TDS" refers to total dissolved solids, also known as minerals.

In a Thursday letter regarding the Domtar request, Nelson wrote that "there is limited information supporting the proposed 3rd party rule."

Gates told the commission that he believed that the EPA concerns were largely based on misunderstandings and that he would be able to work it out with the agency.

"We feel confident we can address these issues," he told the commission.

After the meeting, Gates said he believes that the EPA thinks the companies' research and methodology did not include study of possible man-made causes of pollution in the river.

However, Gates said the study did acknowledge man-made pollution related to the oil and gas industry in Texas and Louisiana.

"We plan to work diligently with the department to answer the EPA's concerns," he said.

Metro on 10/24/2015

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