Water Quality Discussed At Area USFWS Meeting

About 70 landowners, developers and city government officials attended a Dec. 8 meeting sponsored by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service regarding the Cave Springs Cave recharge zone.

The cave is home to the threatened Ozark cavefish and the endangered gray bat. The cavefish is considered an indicator of underground water quality in the area.

The meeting was held at the Jones Center for Families in Springdale to distribute information the USFWS and other agencies have obtained about potential water quality issues in the cave due to continued development in the area.

Tom Aley, president and senior hydrologist for Ozark Underground Laboratory of Protem, Mo., said the objective of the meeting was to get attendees to begin thinking about water quality, and to consider future conservation proposals made by the USFWS.

“We have to tailor land use to the conditions we have,” Aley said.

The cave’s water quality is affected by a minimum 16 square-mile zone surrounding it, and sewage from future development is a great concern to conservationists. Although, Aley said, the water quality in the cave could actually get better if the proper measures are taken.

Aley said much of the land is agriculture now, which can cause contaminated runoff. But well-planned sewage can be treated properly.

Haynes Limited of Rogers purchased Lake Keith for $1.5 million at the end of 2003. It adjoins the cave, and the Haynes family owns the land where the cave’s mouth is located, although the Arkansas Heritage Commission owns the cave proper.