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Missouri's Hinkson Creek Faces Clean-Water Requirement, Agency Says

Posted on: Wednesday, 27 July 2005, 21:00 CDT

Jul. 25--Hinkson Creek should be made safe for swimming from Interstate 70 downstream to Perche Creek, according to recommendations released today by the Missouri Department of Natural Resources.

Sewage treatment plants will have to control the concentration of certain bacteria released in two segments near Columbia. In addition to the downstream section, the section above I-70 will have to meet less stringent guidelines for secondary contact such as canoeing or fishing.

Both environmental advocates and sewage treatment officials said they expected this outcome.

"It would have been very difficult to maintain the position that Hinkson Creek south of I-70 is not used for swimming," said Ken Midkiff, conservation chairman of the Ozark Chapter Sierra Club.

That's exactly what Midkiff told the firm hired to analyze the creek's use.

"Barr Engineering had interviewed me, as well as several other people who had been swimming, canoeing, kayaking -- who had been in Hinkson Creek," he said.

The decision also didn't surprise Boone County Regional Sewage District Director Tom Ratemann.

The county has two treatment facilities on the south fork of Grindstone Creek, which eventually feeds into the Hinkson. Ratemann says both sites currently disinfect the discharge to levels required by the new law.

"The Grindstone is already listed for whole-body contact," he said. "It doesn't have a great big impact on those facilities."

The county already has an agreement with the city of Columbia to eventually close these and create an intercept with the city's sewer system.

The city's treatment system doesn't affect the Hinkson, but it does discharge into the Missouri River, which also will be held to whole-body contact standards.

Sewer engineer Steve Hunt said the city will work with a consultant to address any changes. Preliminary estimates say disinfecting equipment could cost $2 million to $5 million.

A federal judge ruled that Missouri must enact tougher water-quality rules to meet the standards of the federal Clean Water Act by next May.

Treatment plans don't have to comply with the standards until three years after their next permit renewal. Hunt said Columbia would not have to be fully compliant until 2013 because it just qualified for a new five-year permit. The county has 45 different permits with individual renewal dates.

The new rules affect levels of bacteria commonly found in human or animal waste. In waters where humans might have full body contact, monthly averages cannot exceed 400 fecal coliform colonies per 100 milliliters of water. In areas designated for secondary contact, the limits are 1,800 colonies per 100 milliliters for fecal coliform and 1,134 per milliliter for E. coli.

Midkiff criticizes the long lag time for enforcing the rules and the two-tired structure of bacterial standards.

"As far as I know, there's no magic filter at the I-70 bridge that would remove E. coli or fecal coliform," he said.

He notes that the federal water rules do not make a distinction for secondary body contact; that's a Missouri rule. He believes it's "just bogus" to assume people don't have full body contact, even accidentally, when they kayak or canoe.

Use analyses were conducted for nine Boone County creeks. Sugar Creek was determined too shallow for the higher water standards. Callahan Creek was assigned secondary contact status.

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Copyright (c) 2005, Columbia Daily Tribune, Mo.

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Source: Columbia Daily Tribune

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