Arkansas Game & Fish Commission Challenges NPDES Permit for Discharge to Lake Conway

Lake Conway, the centrally located jewel of the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission numerous lakes, is the subject of a recently appealled Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality issued Clean Water Act NPDES permit.  Woodlands Edge Subdivision applied for and was granted permission to construct a wastewater treatment plant that will, once in operation, discharge into Little Creek which drains into Lake Conway.  Arkansas Game and Fish Commission appeals the permit based on the impacts the discharge from Woodlands Edge which it believes will be harmful to the lake.  The Game & Fish Commission is mandated by the Constitution to protect the waters of the State of Arkansas.

The appeal will be an interesting balancing of the responsibilities of the two agencies.  Game and Fish raised in its comments to the permit a variety of concerns related to accelerated eutrophic to hyper-eutrophic conditions due to the tremendous nutrient load proposed to be introduced by Woodlands Edge.  Despite the input from the biologist from Game and Fish, ADEQ issued the permit in late August.  For its relief, Game and Fish requests that the Arkansas Pollution Control and Ecology Commission enter an order reversing the ADEQ's granting of a permit to Woodlands Edge and to direct the ADEQ to deny the permits.