River panel to get
Mill Creek update
The Beautiful Buffalo River Action Committee will meet Tuesday to hear reports on the river's watershed management plan and research done on the Mill Creek tributary.
The meeting will be at 2 p.m. at the department's 5301 Northshore Drive headquarters in North Little Rock.
The Arkansas Natural Resources Commission, which has a representative on the committee and oversaw the drafting of the watershed management plan, submitted the plan to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency earlier this year. If accepted by the EPA, entities in the watershed could use the plan to leverage financing for conservation projects.
Mill Creek has been the subject of conversation in recent years as it has struggled with pollution.
The Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality spent $4,100 on a study of E. coli in Mill Creek, and the department and the U.S. Geological Survey are studying nutrients and bacteria in the creek's watershed. The agencies are each spending $86,000 on the study, with contributions of $3,250 each from the Department of Health and the Game and Fish Commission.
Mill Creek is one of the major tributaries to the Buffalo River.
Protection sought
for state crayfish
The Center for Biological Diversity has asked the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to protect 23 species under the Endangered Species Act, one of which is found in Arkansas.
The group petitioned the Service on June 8 to consider the 23 species and to remove 38 others requested by the group in 2010 from consideration.
The slenderwrist burrowing crayfish lives in at least two Arkansas counties in some wetlands and roadside ditches, according to the petition.
NatureServe, a nonprofit group that provides information related to wildlife conservation, has called the species "critically imperiled" by a decline in habitat quality because of pollution and land use changes, according to the letter.
Agency again asks
to tweak well rules
After pulling the proposal last month, Arkansas' environmental regulatory agency this week plans to ask its rule-making body to let it start the process of changing pollution-prevention regulations for wastes produced by saltwater and oil field wells.
The Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality will ask the Arkansas Pollution Control and Ecology Commission to approve initiating the rule changes Friday at its monthly meeting. The meeting starts at 9 a.m. at the department's 5301 Northshore Drive headquarters in North Little Rock.
Caleb Osborne, associate department director in charge of the Office of Water Quality, told commissioners last month that he was pulling the request from that meeting's agenda because the department had not received approval from Gov. Asa Hutchinson.
Documents attached to the meeting's agenda this month state the governor's approval is still pending.
In a two-page introduction to the petition to commissioners, Osborne said the changes to pollution-prevention regulations are to update definitions, change the name of the program, make typographical changes and eliminate the second permit for owners of disposal wells that are not high volume or commercial disposal.
Fewer than 100 of the 525 permitted wells fit that bill, according to supporting documents filed with the petition. The wells would save $250 per year in permit fees and would be subject only to the permitting program authorized under Arkansas Oil and Gas Commission regulations.
"The proposed rule continues to protect the natural environment because the [commission's] permit requirements protect waters of the state by preventing pollution from oil field waste," department officials wrote. The change would get rid of a "duplicative" permitting process, the department said.
Environmental-law
conference planned
The Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality will host a continuing legal education conference on environmental law and programs later this month.
The June 26 event, scheduled to last from noon to 4 p.m., will cover topics including the state's Brownfield program, environmental stewardship program, environmental justice and the Family and Medical Leave Act.
Brownfields are properties that cannot be developed because of contamination or the perception of contamination on site.
People who are interested can sign up for the conference by emailing [email protected].
NW News on 06/18/2018