WARNING Signs Along Spring River, Carthage

The Jasper County Commissioners heard a report/presentation by Wayne Christian and Frank Martinez of the Carthage High School Stream Team, regarding plans to post WARNING signs at popular swimming and wading places along Spring River, warning swimmers that full body contact would pose a health risk. Tony Moehr, Director of Jasper County Health Department suggested that the signs be made so that they could reflect changes in the river quality, based on testing by the Carthage High School Stream Team.

The Joplin Globe, Friday, March 16, 2007, Tony Moehr said that the Jasper and Newton County Environmental Task Force is also looking for ways to help or serve as a funding mechanism to expand the scope of the Stream Team's work. He said that Spring River's designation as impaired, based on stream-team tests and some conducted by the Missouri Department of Natural Resources, could open the door for money for more testing “and opportunities to fix the problem.”

Jim Honey, Eastern District associate commissioner, offered the use of the county highway department’s sign machine to make the placards.

$30,000 to Lower Shoal Creek Watershed Committee

The Missouri Department of Natural Resources has awarded $30,000 to the Environmental Task Force of Jasper and Newton Counties and the Lower Shoal Creek Watershed Committee. The Harry S. Truman Coordinating Council assisted in securing the grant for the committee. The Joplin Globe, Saturday, March 17, 2007 reports that the grant will be used to develop a survey that, in part, will “gauge perceptions of local water-quality issues and support of various types of local programs aimed at restoring and protecting local waterways,” according to DNR.

The Environmental Task Force of Jasper and Newton Counties formed the Lower Shoal Creek Watershed Committee as a steering committee, last year. The group’s mission statement designates not just the lower part, but the entire Shoal Creek watershed, from its headwaters in Barry County to its confluence with Spring River west of the Missouri-Kansas line near Riverton, KS., as the area to be served by the plan. The goal of the group is to “identify and implement voluntary, common-sense actions that will help to improve and conserve the water quality” of the lower part of the creek and its tributaries.

Five more Streams IMPAIRED

The Joplin Globe, Thursday, March 8, 2007 reported that five more streams have been added to the Missouri list of Impaired Waterways. They are: Hickory Creek, Capps Creek, Lost Creek and Indian Creek (in Newton County), and Spring River (in Jasper County). The Missouri Department of Natural Resources (MDNR) had recommended that the five waterways be placed on the impaired list based on data showing levels of E. coli bacteria in excess of state standards. The Carthage High School Stream Team has been gathering samples on Spring River since 2004. The Newton County Stream Team had collected more than 195 samples from the Newton County streams last year. John Ford, MDNR's Chief of Water Quality Assessment, said that the State will now study how frequently the E. coli levels exceed state standards, in order to establish the stream's Total Maximum Daily Loan ( TMDL), or the maximum amount of a pollutant that may enter the water without breaching water quality standards.