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Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt built his reputation suing the federal government, but this week’s final agreement with Arkansas on water standards for the Illinois River and other state waterways may present an alternative glimpse of how Pruitt will administer the EPA under President-elect Donald Trump.

Instead of suing to settle the decades-long dispute between the two states over phosphorus and other algae-feeding nutrients in Oklahoma’s Scenic Rivers — or pressing for a decision in a poultry industry pollution lawsuit that has been on U.S. District Judge Gregory Frizzell’s desk since 2010 — Pruitt was able to get Arkansas to agree to a third-party study by Baylor University scientists.

Those findings, released earlier this month and formally adopted by the Scenic River Joint Study Committee on Monday, largely affirmed the scientific basis for standards sought by Oklahoma since 2003.

Skeptics point out the agreement has no enforcement mechanism, but the Oklahoma Water Resources Board’s Derek Smithee, who has been tracking water quality in the Illinois River watershed, says the deal is nevertheless “monumental” and “very exciting.”

“Hopefully, this means we’ll quit arguing about a number,” he said.