August 14, 2017
By:
Walter G. Wright
Category:
Arkansas Environmental, Energy, and Water Law
Arkansas Environmental, Energy, and Water Law
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Ozarks Water Watch announced in the August 7th edition of its publication the availability of its annual report entitled:
Status of the Watershed – Summarizing 2016 Water Quality in the Upper White River Basin (“Report”)
Ozarks Water Watch states that the Report is designed to answer the question: “How’s the Water in our lakes and streams of the Upper White River Basin Watershed?”
Water quality was measured by “a network of agencies, organizations and volunteers who, in 2016, took over 3,400 measurements in 200 different locations.” The measurements included:
- 691 Dissolved oxygen values
- 1014 Total Nitrogen values
- 1067 total Phosphorus values
- 393 E. coli counts
- 43 Invertebrate scores
- 262 Water clarity readings
The Report is described as a “comparative tool” as opposed to a “scientific” document. Its purpose is stated to be an attempt to show where the highest and lowest relative quality is to help focus efforts and limited resources where they are most needed.
Waterbodies sampled include:
- Beaver Lake Sub-basin
- Bull Shoals Lake Sub-basin
- James River Sub-basin
- Table Rock (excluding James River)
- Taneycomo Sub-basin
The Report states that using the example of a school report card the sampled waters are deemed to qualify for a B- grade (stated to be an improvement from a C+ in years past) and almost all locations sampled are stated to be available for their “intended uses.” However, the Report further concludes that there are areas with excessive nutrients with negative trends.
A copy of the Report can be downloaded here.
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