GRAND LAKE O' THE CHEROKEES, Okla. -- The problem of phosphorus in the Illinois River is getting better on the Arkansas side of the line, Arkansas water quality officials said.

A goal to reduce the amount of phosphorus in the river by 40 percent was set by the Arkansas-Oklahoma Arkansas River Compact Commission 10 years ago.

The goal is being met at three of the four monitoring sites on the Illinois and its tributaries in Arkansas, said Earl Smith, chief of the water quality division of the Arkansas Natural Resources Commission.

But meeting the goal does not come close to meeting the more recent standard set by the Environmental Protection Agency in 2003. And the 40 percent reduction is not being met further downstream, Oklahoma officials said in their report to the compact commission.

The EPA's limit requires the concentration of phosphorus in the water over a 30-day period to be 0.037 milligrams per liter or less. Oklahoma's report focuses on meeting that goal.

Committee meetings held Wednesday lead up to the full commission's annual meeting today.

In past years, the commission has been a hotbed of contention between the two states, but that was before a federal lawsuit between Oklahoma and area poultry companies over phosphorus and other nutrients and pollutants in the Illinois River watershed.

Earlier this year, Arkansas Attorney General Mike Beebe said the compact commission was the proper place to iron out the disagreements in Oklahoma Attorney General Drew Edmondson's lawsuit against the poultry companies.

The U.S. Supreme Court, however, declined to hear a request by Beebe to intervene in the lawsuit to force the issue back to the compact commission.

Phosphorus in Lake Tenkiller was the main concern 10 years ago and remains a big part of the overall water quality picture for the watershed, said Derek Smithee, chief of the water quality program division for the Oklahoma Water Resources Board.

Reports show much of the phosphorus entering Lake Tenkiller comes during heavy rain when the river is flowing fast, Smithee said.

Wastewater treatment plants in Northwest Arkansas have spent tens of millions and plan to spend tens of millions more to upgrade their plants to reduce phosphorus in the treated water that leaves the plant and enters tributaries of the river.

"With the improvements, we would expect to have phosphorus reductions during base flows, but high (river) flows are the big driver of phosphorus in Lake Tenkiller, and that's a big concern," Smithee said.

Both Arkansas and Oklahoma officials said some of the decrease in the level of nutrients in the river from 2001 to 2005 was because 2005 was a dry year.

Each side had its own report on phosphorus levels in the Illinois River and other scenic streams leading from Arkansas into Oklahoma.

A U.S. Geological Survey report pointed out that 68 to 96 percent of the phosphorus entering Lake Tenkiller comes during and just after rainstorms when the river is flowing fast.

What's Next

River Compact Commission

The Arkansas-Oklahoma Arkansas River Compact Commission will meet today at Shangri La Conference Center at Grand Lake of the Cherokees in Oklahoma. The commission was formed in 1970 to regulate interstate concerns over water in the Arkansas River basin near the border of the two states. The Illinois River is a part of the Arkansas River basin.