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    John Muir

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2001 Envirothon Special Problem
Urban Nonpoint Source Pollution

You are a new homeowner who has just moved to Arkansas from a downtown apartment in Cleveland, Ohio.  After a good deal of searching, you’ve finally found an older home on the east side of Clearwater that you like and can afford. It needs some renovations and landscaping, but you’ve budgeted enough for several home improvement projects, if you do all the work yourself.

It is part brick and part wood (the paint is peeling).  There are no gutters on the house, which has resulted in some drainage problems around the foundation.  A storm drain is located in the gutter along the street between your house and the next door neighbor.  The house has a gravel driveway.

Before it gets too hot this summer, you plan to repaint the exterior of the house and build, stain, and seal the deck in the backyard.  The weedy lawn is sparse and ticks are plentiful in the backyard.  In fact, a large, bare patch of ground in the front yard is resulting in erosion along the street.  Your goals for lawn improvement include a thicker stand of grass along with weed and pest control.  There are shrubs planted along the front of the house in landscaped beds and two 8-foot by 16-foot raised beds in the backyard.  For the first time in your life, you plan to have a vegetable garden!!  There is also a shed in the back corner of your property that contains an unopened 10-lb. bag of diazinon, 2 2 bags (20 lbs. each) of 13-13-13 fertilizer, weed killer, some unmarked bottles with brown liquid, an old car battery, two cans of paint stripper, and lots of old paint.

As you’ve been driving around town trying to become familiar with local stores, public schools, and the best route to work, you’ve noticed signs labeling creeks and watershed boundaries.  In fact, a sign posted along the creek in your neighborhood reads;  “Butterfield Creek. This creek flows into Piney Creek, which flows into the Blue River, and becomes part of Wolf Lake. It carries water, which runs off from neighborhoods, businesses, pastureland, and treated wastewater.  Please help keep it clean. City of Clearwater.”

During a visit to the Green County Cooperative Extension Service to ask about soil testing, you picked up a fact sheet entitled “Water Resources of Wolf Lake.” Reading the information, you learn that Wolf Lake is actually a man-made reservoir created in 1966 by damming the Blue River.  The lake serves as the public drinking water supply for more than 250,000 residents of Clearwater and is visited by approximately 4 million visitors each year for recreational uses.  Because the drainage to Wolf Lake includes the four of the most rapidly urbanizing cities in the state (Clearwater included), the Wolf Lake Watershed is ranked as the number one priority watershed for restoration and protection in Arkansas.

Your realtor has provided you with information about several local services and resources including Clearwater’s “Pay-As-You-Throw” volume-based trash program, curbside recycling options, and the Solid Waste Management District’s Household Hazardous Waste Drop-Off Center.

Your task is to prepare a presentation to defend your home improvement decisions that will minimize your impact on urban nonpoint source pollution. 

As a new resident to the area, several water quality issues might be important to consider:

For additional information about the Envirothon Program in Arkansas, contact:         

Delia Haak, Ed.D Arkansas Envirothon Coordinator
ArkansasEnvirothonCoodinator@gmail.com
479-238-4671

Debbie Moreland, Arkansas Association Conservation District Director
debbiepinreal@aol.com
501-425-2891