Panel calls to end permit from agency
The Arkansas Pollution Control and Ecology Commission approved with no dissent starting the process to eliminate a permit issued by the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality.
The permit, for certain oil and gas disposal wells, is duplicative of a permit already issued by the Arkansas Oil and Gas Commission, said Caleb Osborne, associate director at the Department of Environmental Quality in charge of the water division.
The regulation that would be changed concerns pollution-prevention for wastes produced by saltwater and oil field wells.
The process would 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.
Commission urged to protect turtles
More than two dozen scientists sent a letter to the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission last week urging the commission to ban commercial turtle trapping in Arkansas.
In the letter, 28 scientists from across the South and other parts of the United States say the freshwater turtle population cannot rebound from a commercial harvest.
“The science shows that Arkansas’ turtle trapping regulations need to be amended to prevent turtle declines,” the letter said.
The Center for Biological Diversity, the Sierra Club’s Arkansas chapter, Arkansas Water Trails Partnership, Audubon Society of Central Arkansas, Environmental Resources Center, Kory Roberts and biologist John Kelly have petitioned the commission for the ban.
Arkansas allows people to trap 14 types of turtles for commercial use.