Poultry company wants Oklahoma stream off impaired water list

Friday, April 21st 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

(Jay - AP) An Arkansas poultry company wants a stream into which it discharges water in Delaware County to be taken off Oklahoma's impaired waterways list. However, Oklahoma officials question whether Cave Springs Branch is strong enough to be left without state and federal protections. Simmons Foods Inc. contends it has improved its Southwest City, Missouri, wastewater treatment facility enough to remove Cave Springs Branch from Oklahoma's 303(d) list, which identifies endangered waterways and must be approved by the federal Environmental Protection Agency. The Siloam Springs company requested the stream's removal in a letter last month to state Environmental Secretary Brian Griffin. "Results and recent biological evaluations of Cave Springs ...document good water quality and healthy biota," the Simmons letter reads. "The results of these studies establish that Cave Springs Branch is not impaired." The Oklahoma portion of the Cave Springs Branch has been on the endangered list since the Simmons plant had malfunctions two years ago in which biologists believe the discharge may have killed much of the stream's aquatic life. Simmons eventually paid a $300,000 fine to Oklahoma. The company also is being sued by property owners along Cave Springs Branch and Honey Creek who alleged the wastewater plant is affecting the use and enjoyment of the streams and generates "noise and noxious odors" that "trespass" onto the plaintiffs' properties. The lawsuit was filed in September in federal court in Tulsa. Simmons has spent $10 million on the treatment plant in recent years. It also has to meet stringent Missouri environmental standards, said Simmons spokesman Doug Siemens. "If it is on the list for no reason, it could lead to unnecessary regulations, not only for us but for landowners along the stream," Siemens said. J.D. Strong, the environmental secretary's water quality expert, said the state will be taking a closer look at Simmons' data in support of taking the Cave Springs Branch off the list. "We'll probably scrutinize it a little bit more," Strong said. Water quality experts from the state Department of Environmental Quality, the Corporation Commission and the Water Resources Board will meet with other agencies in a few weeks to draft a complete 303(d) list. In June, a final list will be submitted to the EPA, Strong said.