Water

quality in Whitewater Creek probably hasn't

suffered in the current drought, says a state

environmental official.

The

city of Fayetteville's sewer plant discharges

treated effluent into the creek, and overall flow

has been reduced by drought, causing residents of

the area to wonder whether sewage levels in the

water have risen to the danger point.

But

not to worry, says Jim Summerville, water quality

official at the state Environmental Protection

Division.

"Impact

on the water in the stream should not be a

factor," said Summerville.

Local

officials monitor the purity of sewer effluent

that is released back into streams after being

chemically treated, Summerville said, and send

those monitoring reports to the EPD. If the

effluent meets state and federal standards, then

it's not likely to harm the water, he said.

But

what if drought has lowered the stream level so

much that the discharge from a sewer plant makes

up a much larger percentage of the overall stream

volume?

That's

not a problem, said Summerville. When the state

granted the city of Fayetteville a permit to

discharge 3.75 million gallons of treated sewage

a day into Whitewater Creek, he said, that permit

is based on the seven-day low flow over a

ten-year period.

That's

a figure established by the U.S. Geological

Survey and refers to extreme drought conditions,

he said. "That's when the stream is at most

risk," he added. "You have to make sure

the [sewage] that is being discharged won't cause

a violation of water quality standards."

Rick

Eastin, Fayetteville's Water Department director,

stated it more strongly: "The water we're

putting back into Whitewater Creek is of a higher

quality than what's in Whitewater Creek," he

said.

"The

standards we have to operate under... the creek

water would not pass the test that [treated

sewage] has to go through," he said.

If

that changes, Summerville said, EPD officials

will be on top of the situation.

"Our

folks are out in the field keeping an eye on

things," he said.

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