TAHLEQUAH, Okla. – After decades of studies and reports on the continuing degradation of Oklahoma’s waterways, advocacy organizations wonder why the data are not being implemented and the levels of bacteria and phosphorus continue to increase.
Barb Daily, vice president of Save The Illinois River Inc., has worked with the organization since moving to Tahlequah around 2008. Several binders holds hundreds of pages of reports and research she said never gets past the publishing of the results.
Going through the multiple notebooks, she shared phosphorus studies that started in 1993.
“Supporters of the river are so frustrated with the ongoing calls of new studies,” Daily said. “We have been studying the river since the organization was formed in 1984.”
One study by the Spring Creek Coalition, working with the Water Keepers Alliance, was rejected by the Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality in July 2024.
“The samples did not meet the quality assurance protocols that EPA requires,” said Erin Hatfield, director of Communications and Education. “The Spring Creek Coalition does not have an approved Quality Assurance Project Plan.”
One study pointed out by Daily was completed in September 2010 by Dr. Riley Needham, who presented the results to the Oklahoma Scenic Rivers Commission on how technology could be used to accomplish low levels of total phosphorus in wastewater discharge.
Needham worked at Northeastern State University in the Science Department.
According to that study, systems were available in 2010 that “have been demonstrated to treat wastewater to an effluent level of total phosphorus less than 10 microgram/liter.”
Daily said elected officials and heads of commissions and departments act like phosphorus is a “whole new thing” or that it’s been resolved.
“But we know it hasn’t,” Daily said. “I’m also part of SCC, and the last time we monitored Spring Creek, the big problem was E.coli, which is a bacteria from feces, which could be more than just animal feces.”
Daily said there is also concern regarding aging septic systems along the river and whether they are leaking, and where the waste is going.
“Especially along the Illinois River with some of those older homes and cabins – when were those systems put in?” Daily said. “That’s one problem with the Illinois River – and groundwater pollution, and the use of biosolids [as fertilizer] and the depletion of the aquifers.”
The geology of the Spring Creek and Illinois River areas is composed of porous Karst rock formations, which water erodes, Daily said.
One of the hottest topics in the fight to keep the Illinois River and other waterways pollution-free is House Bill 4118 authored by State Rep. David Hardin, R-District 6, on Jan. 8, 2024. It failed in the House but was picked up by the Senate and signed into law May 31, 2024, as Senate Bill 1424.
Despite the controversy, Hardin, of Adair County, handily won reelection to his post last fall.
The “Nutrient Management Plans” that poultry integrators must file “is to prevent interim equitable relief or punitive damages” against the producer. If a producer does not follow their plan and waste pollutes a waterway, fines are also part of the bill.
A news release from Communications and Public Affairs with the Oklahoma House of Representatives from Hardin Dec. 18, 2024, claimed recent water quality confirmed high levels of bacteria in the Illinois River. He said state and federal agencies are focused on addressing the problem and making improvements.
Hardin’s recent announcement on the increased bacteria in the river is especially perplexing to STIR members.
Ed Brocksmith, cofounder of STIR, said phosphorus is the issue with chicken producers, although bacteria is also an important element in the pollution of waterways.
Ben Felder, editor-in-chief with “Investigate Midwest,” in an article titled, “20th year as arguments over pollution continue,” published in early January, stated the Oklahoma lawsuit against poultry companies is still ongoing.
A soil scientist who was called as a witness for the state in December testified the only way to get water pollution under control is to ban the use of chicken litter as fertilizer, stated the article.
“Nothing else will begin to clean up the problem until the land application of poultry waste stops,” wrote Gregory Scott, a scientist with the Oklahoma Conservation Commission, who was quoted in the article.
The exportation of litter to other areas – touted as a way to get the litter away from waterways – has been tracked all the way back to 2010, Daily said.
“But the problem with that is we could never find where they are taking it,” Daily said. “Are they taking it to another watershed? It’s vague language: ‘we are removing it from the watershed.’ But are they taking it to someone else’s watershed?”
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