Arkansas and Missouri on Water Quality: It’s better to work together than end up in court.

The Arkansas Democrat and Gazette is reporting:

“Arkansas and Missouri officials agreed Monday to meet annually to study ways to protect watersheds and aquifers that cross state lines, a pact both states said would help keep water fights out of the courtroom.

“Arkansas Gov. Mike Beebe signed the bi-state water agreement with Missouri Gov. Matt Blunt in Springfield, Mo. Beebe said the agreement is a contrast to the state’s relationship with Oklahoma, which has sued Arkansas poultry firms over water-quality issues.

“ ‘It’s better to work together than end up in court,’ Beebe said.”

Oh, really?!

Actually, the states of Arkansas and Missouri aren’t in court over water disputes right now, but Arkansa’s poultry industry is – with neighboring Oklahoma, and Green Country, in particular, where private attorneys hired by the poultry industry and by the attorney general are becoming enormously wealthy fighting over just exactly how many hundreds of tons of chicken feces is “safe” for Oklahoma rivers and waterways each and every year.

Apparently the states of Arkansas and Missouri have learned something from this. It is not only important to set and enforce standards for your own waterways, but to also work with neighboring states so that the industries in your own state don’t go there, wreak havoc, and embarrass your state in the national news.

Also see:

• OSRC Budget Approved, Commissioners Still Concerned
• Is the Poultry Industry ‘Avoiding a Day of Reckoning’?
• Piling it on, deeper and deeper.