Editor’s Note: Artificial intelligence software was used to assist in compiling this report.
State Sen. Bryan King of Green Forest told members of the Arkansas State Senate Agriculture, Forestry and Economic Development Committee on Feb. 4 that he wants lawmakers to fund a $25 million interim study focused on improving the health of rivers and streams, arguing that Arkansas should take a proactive approach rather than repeat the decades-long legal fight that followed the Illinois River watershed lawsuit.
King, a Republican whose district includes all of Carroll County, opened the meeting at the Berryville Community Center by calling Northwest Arkansas’ rivers “the crown jewels of Arkansas rivers” and said protecting them is about more than agriculture.
King said he has held numerous meetings in his Senate district on the subject of rivers and streams, including diverse groups in those conversations.
“I think it’s better and beneficial to try to go a different route for people in Arkansas and to get our rivers and streams better and healthier and try and get people working together instead of throwing insults and pointing fingers,” King told the committee.
In his presentation, King discussed his family’s farming background and said his own poultry operation is a concentrated animal feeding operation, or CAFO.
King said the proposed study would examine multiple river issues raised in previous meetings, including gravel bar buildup, stream bank erosion, development pressure and population growth.
“The other part about the gravel bar buildup and that issue, it is a nail in the forehead issue,” he said.
Asked whether the proposal would extend beyond Northwest Arkansas, King said the draft is only a starting point, adding that expansion “could be included later.”
During public comment, Jackson Butt, a Kings River guide who said he is on the water “about 220 days a year,” urged lawmakers to focus on protecting riparian corridors rather than trying to “fix what has been broken.”
“Protecting what is already there is the most effective and cost-effective way of keeping these rivers safe,” Butt said.
Butt also described declining water levels and fishing conditions. “It’s harder and harder to float,” he said, adding that “this last year was the first year that neither me nor my clients caught a 20-inch smallmouth.”
Gordon Watkins, president of the Buffalo River Watershed Alliance, argued that the Arkansas Phosphorus Index used in nutrient management plans is not adequately limiting phosphorus applications in the nutrient surplus area. When soil tests show an “excess amount of phosphorus,” Watkins said, farmers are still “allowed to apply four to five times what the crops actually need.”
Watkins said he supports studying gravel bars but cautioned against assuming that removal is a simple fix.
“I don’t think that simply removing gravel is going to solve the issue,” he said. “You need to look at the source of the problem.”
In closing, committee chairman Sen. Ron Caldwell urged attendees to remain engaged once legislation is drafted.
“Come to Little Rock and testify,” he said. “Come to Little Rock and twist arms on the legislators.”
King said the goal is to reduce suspicion and keep the process transparent.
“The suspicion aspect … needs to be taken out,” he said. “One side of everything has suspicion of the other side, and that is the first thing that needs to be removed.”
