The Arkansas cities of Pine Bluff and White Hall, Jefferson County and the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff have partnered with the Jefferson County Cooperative Extension Service to help the area meet requirements under the federal Clean Water Act.

According to a story in the Pine Bluff Commercial, the act requires that all cities with more than 50,000 residents put an education program in place to teach the public about the pollution that results from storm water runoff.

Steven Stone directs the Urban Storm Water Education Program at the Jefferson County Cooperative Extension Service, speaking to local individuals and groups about being better stewards of the water supply.

"Most of them are concerned about it, but overall the majority of the people are doing things, maybe, that negatively affect this, because they don't know any better," Stone said.

The program has a deadline of 2009 to meet mandates that were set in a storm water permit issued last year.

Allan Skinner, director of the Southeast Arkansas Regional Planning Commission, helped write the 2004 permit and believes the program will benefit the water supply. The permit also calls for Pine Bluff, White Hall and urbanized areas of Jefferson County to enact ordinances that require anyone clearing more than one acre of land to meet storm water regulations.

"This is going to improve the water quality nationwide in urbanized areas," Skinner said. "That's what the whole program is -- to improve water quality in all of our drinking water. Now, the EPA says the problem isn't so much industry, it's urban storm water from different people."

The program submits an annual report to the state Department of Environment Quality to assess its achievements in six main areas of storm water education, including individuals and groups like contractors. Stone also collects and analyzes water samples to monitor the progress of the area's water supply.

In the fall, Stone hopes to take the program into schools where he will teach the students how their actions can affect the entire community.

"The thing we want to stress is to get down to the individual level," Stone said. "The things (people) do on their own lawn and in their own home can greatly affect water quality and pollution."

Through a local survey, Stone discovered that many local residents do not know that most of the runoff water in the area drains to Bayou Bartholomew and to the Arkansas River without being treated.

"They haven't been educated (about storm water issues)," Stone said of the groups to whom he speaks. "I think most people want to do the right thing and want to protect the environment and water quality, but they don't know what they need to do."

Source: PBC