Posted: December 11, 2015 at 1 a.m.
Action needed
to preserve Buffalo River
Fall is my favorite time of year for hiking and floating on the Buffalo National River. The kids are back in school and the Razorback fans are at a tailgate party. The Buffalo is left to those who want to take a slow, quiet float, watch the herons, and camp undisturbed on a limestone gravel bar.
Last month, six of us ranging in age from 54 to almost 84 floated 13.5 miles from the Spring Creek campground to Rush. Each and every one of us had floated the Buffalo many, many times at different seasons of the year and on all sections of the river. Yet we had never the seen the river so inundated with algae at every turn and pool. The algae plumes covered the bottom of the river an estimated 70 percent of our trip down the river. While we had the pick of the gravel bars for camping, we searched for a campsite that was algae free. None were to be had, at least when the time came for us to stop for the night. Algae blooms in rivers and lakes typically mean there are dangerous amounts of chemicals, pollutants and toxins harming the quality of the water. Algae covered the bottom of the river and created a green border along the shore. I passed on swimming in such green slime. It was disgusting and depressing.
Is this is the new normal for a trip down the once beautiful Buffalo River? Has contamination from hog manure and other sources destroyed our state treasure? Unfortunately, this is a national trend. Despite the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency and passage of the Clean Water Act in the 1970’s, our rivers are becoming more and more polluted in part due to waste and runoff from industrial operations. Look no further than the Illinois River in western Arkansas degraded by chicken litter run-off and more recently, the Dan River in North Carolina, where a large pipe full of coal ash spilled more than 27 million gallons of contaminated water into the river.
While all rivers are important to our ecology, neither of these streams were national parks or rivers. But the Buffalo River is a national river, in fact, the first national river in our country. The National Park Service owns only 11 percent of the watershed. It is up to all of us, especially those who own land that borders the park and those who use the park, to be good stewards of the land. The Buffalo is also an economic engine for our communities by attracting visitors from around the world who shop in our stores, stay in our cabins and eat at our restaurants. These are important jobs for so many of us and it would be economically disastrous for the Buffalo River to continue to be mistreated.
That’s why it’s time for all of us to speak up. Let’s urge our elected officials in Little Rock and Congress to clean up our Buffalo National River and support implementing the new Clean Water Act rules.
MARGARET KONERT
Fayetteville