Growth results in efforts to protect area waterways

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Pristine lakes and a clean environment are a combination that has drawn tourists and new residents to this area in the past two decades.|ret||ret||tab|

But while the influx of people has meant economic prosperity for much of Springfield and southwest Missouri, many believe that growth, like nearly everything else, comes with a price tag.|ret||ret||tab|

"Growth has been the biggest factor influencing the environment in the past 20 years," said Wally Miller, an environmental specialist with the southwest regional office of the Missouri Department of Natural Resources. |ret||ret||tab|

"Not that growth itself is bad. But it can have a negative impact," he added.|ret||ret||tab|

Most of that impact, Miller said, has been in the area of water quality.|ret||ret||tab|

"People coming here 20 years ago didn't see the problem," Miller said. "But there were people here who said that we were going to have a problem if we didn't control growth."|ret||ret||tab|

Over time, visitors to area lakes Table Rock, Taneycomo and Bull Shoals began to notice the problem as water clarity decreased by as much as 50 percent. |ret||ret||tab|

Observers such as Miller placed most of the blame for the decrease on a single culprit: phosphorus.|ret||ret||tab|

"It acts as a nutrient," Miller said. "Algae, a plant, uses the nutrients to grow. If a stream is productive enough, it affects the clarity and quality of the water. If it gets bad enough, it can result in a mass die-off of fish due to competition for oxygen."|ret||ret||tab|

In response to the threat to some of the region's economic mainstays, organizations such as the James River Basin Partnership were formed. |ret||ret||tab|

The parntnership's mission, said Executive Director Pamela Anderson, is to educate people on the wise use and preservation of water resources.|ret||ret||tab|

"We got started through a grant from DNR," Anderson said. "Since then, we've made a lot of progress partnering with area chambers of commerce to sponsor two environmental conferences, and we've spent a lot of time educating people on water quality."|ret||ret||tab|

Anderson said the one accomplishment she's most proud of is the organization's role in developing a rule, adopted last year by the Missouri Clean Water Commission, to lower the amount of phosphorus that municipalities can discharge.|ret||ret||tab|

"Several of our members were on the Point Source Task Force appointed by DNR," Anderson said. "They studied the effects of phosphorus and recommended that cities which produce more than 22,500 gallons of effluent per day be allowed to discharge no more than .5 milligrams per liter. That rule was adopted by the commission last summer."|ret||ret||tab|

But with the new rule came another problem, Anderson said: How to pay for the upgrades treatment plants would need in order to comply with the lower phosphorus level.|ret||ret||tab|

"Everybody wants clean water," Anderson said. "But paying for it is another thing. Fortunately, we were able to get the attention of Sen. Christopher S. Bond. He came through with $5.5 million for us money that's been set aside to help cities get phosphorus removal put on."|ret||ret||tab|

Miller said it's quite an accomplishment that the rule and the funding are helping to reduce the phosphorus discharged by Springfield, Nixa, Ozark and Cassville, cities that account for 90 percent of the point-source phosphorus bound for the James River Arm of Table Rock Lake. As a result, he said, "Springfield is way ahead of schedule from a regulatory standpoint and is setting a good example for smaller cities."|ret||ret||tab|

Approximately one-third of the excess nutrients affecting Table Rock Lake comes from the James River watershed, Anderson said. |ret||ret||tab|

Another one-third comes from non-point sources such as septic tanks, stormwater runoff and sediment erosion. The remaining one-third comes from the Arkansas side.|ret||ret||tab|

To help with interstate cooperation, Anderson said last fall DNR and the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality took part in the White River Basin Forum. |ret||ret||tab|

Held in Branson, the forum resulted in a memorandum of agreement between the states to plan, develop and implement cooperative efforts to address water quality issues in the upper White River watershed.|ret||ret||tab|

Gov. Mel Carnahan attended the day-long event and told a group of nearly 300 that water in the White River watershed doesn't stop at the state line and that Missouri and Arkansas must work together to protect Table Rock and Roaring River state parks.|ret||ret||tab|

The parks attract more than 1.5 million visitors each year and contribute to Missouri's $13 billion tourism industry.|ret||ret||tab|

People such as Dan Obrecht, coordinator of the Lakes of Missouri Volunteer Program, an organization that has monitored Missouri's lakes since 1992, believes that with the decrease in phosphorus from point sources, clarity in the lakes should improve.|ret||ret||tab|

"But some people believe as much phosphorus enters the lake from non-point sources as point sources," Obrecht said. "Those need to be addressed if we're going to reach our goal of restoring the lakes of Missouri to the condition they were in decades ago."|ret||ret||tab|

Among those non-point sources are stormwater runoff, direct contamination through dumping and non-functioning septic tanks, said Todd Parnell, treasurer of the James River Basin Partnership.|ret||ret||tab|

"Fertilizers and pesticides contribute to the non-source problem," Parnell said. "So does gravel mining in streams that's not very well-regulated."|ret||ret||tab|

Parnell, who traces his family's connection to local waterways back more than 100 years, said deteriorating water quality in the future could have a dramatic impact on the potential for continued economic development.|ret||ret||tab|

"I think economic development and quality of life can go hand in hand and not be competing interests," Parnell said. "But for that to happen, we have to prioritize how we're going to protect our natural resources and involve those fueling the economic development in the protection of those resources."|ret||ret||tab|

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