Beaver Water District Releases Watershed Map
Map Part Of Program To Educate Community Leaders
Last updated Sunday, January 13, 2008 5:35 PM CST in News
By Brandon Marcello
THE MORNING NEWS
ROGERS -- The debate on legislating what can be done in Beaver Lake's watersheds has cooled, but protecting the watersheds is still a hot topic for the Beaver Water District.
The district, partnered with Audubon Arkansas, has produced a new watershed map designed to educate community leaders and policymakers, said Amy Wilson, public affairs director with the Beaver Water District.
Production of the new map -- which includes seven subwatersheds on the east side of Northwest Arkansas' larger cities -- comes after Beaver Water District staff and supporters' attempts to get cities and counties in the region to pass ordinances to better protect Beaver Lake.
Progress in the last two years, however, has been hard to come by for the district. Property owners near the lake were against a draft ordinance in Benton County in 2006 that would have disallowed new development inside riparian buffers. The buffers were defined as land within 150 feet of streams, tributaries and dry creek beds.
The measures failed to gain adequate support, and the topic soon died.
The release of the new map last week directed to policymakers is not meant to heat up debate again, said Bob Morgan, manager of environmental quality for the Beaver Water District.
"Our authority is to produce water," he explained. "Our authority is not land management ... The only way we can impose regulation is through our ability to encourage other jurisdictions to promote some ordinances."
Morgan said the district is no longer proposing ordinances to county and city government entities.
The new map contains information on protecting the district's seven watersheds, including the West Fork-White River subwatershed that is designated an impaired stream because of high turbidity levels and excessive silt loads, according to a study by the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality.
Runoff from construction sites near the watershed causes the excessive silt, then affects Beaver Lake, said Dabney Brannon, regional conservation manager for Audubon Arkansas.
"The dirtier the water, the more work has to be done to treat it," Brannon said. "That's why we did this map. People need to know that what they're doing affects us and the habitat in the watersheds. One thing I always like to say is that as Beaver Lake goes, so goes the Northwest Arkansas community. We all want to have a good community and good water quality is a big part of that."
The southern section of Beaver Lake, Morgan said, had a eutrophic, or nutrient-rich, value in August. Water quality is measured in three classifications -- oligotrophic, mesotrophic and eutrophic. Eutrophic, according to values obtained during an August excursion on the lake, signifies high biological productivity. Those conditions, considered the highest at the headwaters in Beaver Lake, allow for better algae growth.
"Obviously, when it's like that the lake has more opportunities to have contaminants," Morgan said.
Most pollution in the lake is caused by runoff, Morgan said. The Beaver Water District can help curb that, he said, with buffer zones.
Still, no legislation has been proposed since the failed attempts in 2006, Morgan said.
"The Beaver Water District has some good points, but you just can't take property or limit the use of property without compensation," said Scott Borman, general manager of the Benton-Washington Regional Public Water Authority, which also draws water from Beaver Lake.
"Protecting the watershed, yes, is a very good thing," Borman said. "You have to take baby steps to get it done. Education is the biggest place to start."
AT A GLANCE
Secchi Disc
Thirty-five "community scientists" meet at the Prairie Creek Marina on Beaver Lake every August to conduct studies to measure the turbidity -- or clarity -- of the lake. The teams spread to different positions across the lake and drop a Secchi disk into the water. The disc, patterned in white and black, reflects light to the surface of the water as it descends into the lake. The longer the disc is visible as it drops, the better the clarity of the lake.
Source: Dabney Brannon, Regional Conservation Manager For Audubon Arkansas
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bstrick wrote on Jan 14, 2008 9:02 AM:
ROOTER wrote on Jan 14, 2008 11:14 AM:
Not already registered?
tony wrote on Jan 14, 2008 5:46 AM: