ARKANSAS Focus : Enforce standards, attorney tells EPA

[baby_bear]

http://www.nwanews.com/adg/story_National.php?storyid=44736

<snip>
In a letter sent Thursday to the acting administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, Tulsa attorney Chuck Shipley wrote that Oklahomans are tired of waiting for the agency to follow the rules for water standards in the Clean Water Act. "We have been talking with these guys forever, and they just won’t move," Shipley said. "How much does it take? How many excuses before they do something?"

Shipley and others are considering litigation to resolve the issue.
...
Almost a year ago, Oklahoma proposed a phosphorus level of 0.037 parts per million for scenic rivers, including the Illinois, and presented it to federal authorities.

Arkansas regulators and the poultry industry protested the plan for rivers that start in Arkansas and flow into Oklahoma. Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee said the limit was unattainable because of Northwest Arkansas’ dense development and it could harm the area’s economy.
...
Federal clean water rules require the EPA to consider the standard within 90 days, after which the agency could tell the state why the standard wouldn’t work or to begin using that new standard.

Oklahoma officials submitted the standard Nov. 1, 2002, and the 90-day period ended in February. As of Thursday, there had been no action on the standard, Shipley said.
</snip>

s_m

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

1. Arkansas is dragging its heels

because of the chicken farmers in NW AR. They mostly work for Tyson, and, sadly, Tyson's word is law here.