Okla. Group Seeks Stay Of Ark. Sewer-Plant Permit

An Oklahoma environmental group says it has asked the Arkansas Pollution Control and Ecology Commission to suspend a permit granted more than two years ago for a sewage-treatment plant that would discharge into a tributary of the Illinois River, which flows into northeast Oklahoma.

Save The Illinois River, or STIR, said Thursday it had filed a request with the Arkansas agency to stay the permit granted to the Northwest Arkansas Conservation Authority for a plant that would treat sewage from the city of Bentonville.

The Illinois watershed is at the heart of a suit now being tried in federal court at Tulsa, Okla. The state of Oklahoma has sued to stop several Arkansas-based poultry companies from spreading poultry litter on land in the watershed of the Illinois, which is listed as a scenic river in Oklahoma.

STIR said the permit for the sewage plant should be stayed until the federal Environmental Protection Agency develops standards for discharge of phosphorus.

Source: AP