What about fishing? The water district didn't ask

The Morning News
Local News for Northwest Arkansas

Survey Tests Watershed Knowledge
By Caleb Fort
The Morning News
http://www.nwaonline.net/articles/2008/11/29/news/113008rzwaterknowledge.txt
Elected officials, developers, farmers and others took a survey last year to determine how much they knew about the Beaver Lake watershed.
They did well in general knowledge and in the areas asking about recreation, inflows and outflows, but not so well on the topics of hydropower, nutrients and sedimentation.
The survey, called a knowledge gap assessment, was created by the Beaver Water District and The Forrester Group, an environmental consulting firm.
The goal was to find out how knowledgeable community leaders were about the watershed, said Robert Morgan, the water district’s manager of environmental quality.
“The objective was to find out if our stakeholders have the knowledge to make informed decisions about the watershed,” Morgan said.
A consultant from Forrester interviewed 20 people the district had identified as stakeholders.
The questions were open-ended. The surveyor judged the respondents’ answers based on whether they included key concepts that were identified during a daylong meeting of local experts, Morgan said.
The first question was: “What can you tell me about Beaver Lake?” Key phrases in the response included “artificial lake” or “reservoir,” “dam,” “White River” and “constructed in the 1960s.”
The surveyor then graded the response on a scale of 0 to 5.
The survey was not the typical statistics-based, multiple-choice question model, Morgan said. The results will be useful for preparing educational materials about the watershed, he said.
David Short, chairman of the district’s board, said he had not read the report. He said he was not surprised by the results based on a presentation by Morgan.
Short said he would like to do a similar survey to determine knowledge gaps on the board.
“I think that would be of real value to help run the district,” he said.
According to the report, one of the biggest areas of misconception was about the role of the Army Corps of Engineers.
“A large majority of interviewees vastly overstated the ‘power’ of the Corps and their jurisdictions in many authorized uses of the Lake,” the report states. “Correspondingly, the Corps was also criticized for too much action, too little action, and being unresponsive to concerns that often weren’t in their jurisdiction.”
P.J. Spaul, a corps spokesman, had not seen the report, but said there is some public confusion about the corps.
“There are people that think we underregulate, people that think we overregulate,” he said. “There are people that think we have a lot more authority in some areas than we do.”

Assessment Results Of Beaver Lake Knowledge Survey

Median knowledge gap assessment results on a scale of 0 to 5. (Rounded to nearest quarter).
• General: 4.25
• Inflows and outflows: 4
• Flood control: 4
• Hydropower: 3
• Water supply: 3.5
• Water quality: 4
• Sedimentation: 4
• Nutrients: 3.5
• Aquatic life: 4
• Recreation: 4.5
Source: Beaver Water District


Overview Of Survey Areas

• General: The lake was created on the White River in the 1960s. It is used for flood control, hydropower, drinking water and recreation.
• Inflows and outflows: Water enters the lake through streams, precipitation and runoff, and leaves the lake through the dam, drinking water suppliers and evaporation. Urban and suburban development increase runoff in the watershed.
• Flood control: The lake stores water from flooding events to be released later at a controlled rate. The purpose of flood control is to protect property downstream from the dam.
• Hydropower: The dam creates hydropower by using the pressure of the lake to turn turbines. Hydropower creation, the biggest water use during normal years, is managed by the Southwestern Power Administration.
• Water supply: Congress authorized the use of Beaver Lake as a water supply. Regional public utilities, such as Beaver Water District and the Benton-Washington Regional Public Water Authority, are responsible for producing drinking water.
• Water quality: Water quality is defined by the “physical, chemical and biological condition of a body of water.” Problems can include bacteria, viruses, algae and lack of dissolved oxygen.
• Sedimentation: Sediment is carried to the lake through tributaries. It can cause loss of habitat and murky water and can transport pollutants.
• Nutrients: Nutrients, especially nitrogen and phosphorous, stimulate algae and other aquatic life. Algae can deplete the lake’s dissolved oxygen and cause taste and odor problems. Nutrients come from many sources, including the atmosphere, runoff and wastewater.
• Aquatic life: Aquatic life is not a use of the lake authorized by Congress. It is designated as a use by the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality. The diversity of aquatic life is determined by water quality, habitat and invasive species.
• Recreation includes boating, swimming and water skiing. Good access and water clarity enhance recreation. Waterborne pathogens and high or low lake levels can impair recreation.
Source: Beaver Lake Knowledge Gap Assessment