Scott Pruitt, the embattled head of the Environmental Protection Agency, took the side of poultry companies and other businesses in Arkansas in a dispute over the pollution of an ecologically sensitive and economically vital watershed, environmental groups say. While he was representing Oklahoma as its attorney general, Pruitt helped to slow the implementation of a plan, forged years ago by both states, to clean a river in his home state. Even before he was appointed to head the EPA, Pruitt faced questioning about his failure, as Oklahoma attorney general, to implement a standard for phosphorus levels in the Illinois River, which flows from Arkansas into Oklahoma. The river had high levels of phosphorus from animal waste, and poultry producers in Arkansas opposed the standard. In 2013, after receiving contributions from poultry companies that benefited from his inaction, Pruitt agreed to a three-year delay in the implementation of the standard, as was reported when he was first nominated to be EPA administrator. Now, it’s become clear that under Pruitt’s leadership, the EPA has taken actions that could further undermine Oklahoma’s longstanding efforts to clean up water pollution in the Illinois River. Last July, the EPA approved the removal of a segment of the river, and three tributaries that flow into it, from a list of pollution-impaired waterways in Arkansas. The list, which is required under the Clean Water Act, creates a legal obligation to address the pollution. Although the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality, or ADEQ, tried to have the waterways removed from the list in previous years, the EPA had refused.

In 2016, for instance, the EPA rejected a version of the list that was proposed by Arkansas, because it left out Osage Creek and Spring Creek, which both flow into the Illinois River. In March of that year, the EPA sent a letter to ADEQ explaining that a 2010 study found that the creeks in Arkansas still had elevated levels of phosphorus. “Until new data indicate that the segments are no longer impaired, Osage Creek and Spring Creek need to be listed on Arkansas’ 303(d) list.” But last year, without providing any new data, the EPA changed course. According to a July 17 letter, the federal agency removed four parts of the watershed from the list and retroactively approved lists that Arkansas had previously submitted in 2010, 2012, 2014, and 2016. The letter explained that “Arkansas and Oklahoma have engaged in several cooperative efforts to achieve additional nutrient reductions in the Illinois watershed,” and noted that “several pollution controls are in place to bring the waters into attainment with the water quality standard.” As examples, the letter listed permit limits and regulations on how much waste can be applied to land. But Mark Derichsweiler, who served for 20 years as the engineering manager for the water quality planning section of the Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality, said the EPA’s rationale is insufficient. “There are stringent requirements” for removing a water body from the list, said Derichsweiler, who retired in 2015. “You can’t just say, ‘We’re going to try and do better, so let’s take this stream off the list.’ It doesn’t work that way. There has to be a definite plan that says, here’s what we’re going to do in the next five years. They don’t have anything like that.”

Ed Brocksmith, a co-founder of Save the Illinois River, stands along its course in Tahlequah, Okla., Jan. 12, 2017. Photo: Nick Oxford/The New York Times/Redux

From Pristine to Polluted Ed Brocksmith was 11 years old when Lake Tenkiller was formed by damming the Illinois River. From then on, Brocksmith’s family regularly spent time at the lake, located in northeastern Oklahoma, picnicking on its banks, fishing, and swimming there in the summer. “It was one of the prettiest lakes in Oklahoma,” said Brocksmith, now 77. “You could stand up to your waist and look down and see your toenails and count the rocks on the bottom of the lake.” No longer. The Illinois River and Lake Tenkiller have gone from pristine to polluted. Brocksmith first became aware of the problem in the 1970s, when he took a trip to the state border and saw the river flowing dark rather than clear. The water was thick with algae. Brocksmith co-founded Save the Illinois River in 1984 to clean up the watershed around the river.

Photo: Nick Oxford/The New York Times/Redux

Lawyers for Oklahoma also took up the cause and sued Arkansas. In 1992, the suit made its way to the Supreme Court, which ruled that upstream Arkansas was obligated to meet downstream Oklahoma’s water quality standard and decrease the amount of waste in the river at the border. That year, Oklahoma drew up its first list of pollution-impaired waterways. The Illinois River made the list, which was divided into four categories according to the severity of pollution, with priority one being the highest. “The Illinois was always priority one,” said Derichsweiler, who worked at the state environmental agency for 38 years. Yet it took another decade of legal wrangling over the issue before the two states came to an agreement over the pollution. In 2002, Oklahoma’s Water Resources Board adopted a standard that limited the amount of phosphorus allowed in scenic rivers. Phosphorus, which is contained in the feces of animals, contributes to the growth of algae, which makes the water slimy and saps its oxygen supply, making it difficult for some fish to live. In 2003, Arkansas and the EPA agreed to the standard, which was to be implemented by 2012. At first, the cleanup plan seemed to be working. Arkansas took several of the required steps to improve water quality, and its initial actions greatly decreased the amount of phosphorus coming from wastewater in Arkansas. But the final stage of the cleanup never happened. Instead, in 2012, a year after he became Oklahoma’s attorney general, Scott Pruitt authorized a three-year delay of the agreement and a joint committee to study phosphorus in the river. Had Pruitt not authorized the study, Arkansas would have been obligated to meet the water quality standard. Although the study Pruitt authorized found, in 2016, that the limit on phosphorus that had already been set was appropriate, neither state took action to reach the agreed levels. Although the agreement remains on the books, the contamination remains — and in some places has gotten worse. A 2017 report found that the amount of phosphorus in the Illinois River near the border town of Watts was 78 times higher than the level set by the 2002 agreement. Near another Oklahoma town of Tahlequah, the phosphorus level exceeded the standard by 91 percent.

Nine-day-old chickens eat a mix of corn and soybeans and drink water at a poultry farm associated with Tyson Foods, north of Plumerville, Ark. on June 20, 2017. Photo: Kelly P. Kissel/AP