Regional Industry & News

Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin pledged a big boost to restore the fishing pond at War Memorial Park in Little Rock at a fundraising event Thursday at Trio's Restaurant.

About 40 people attended the event, including State Rep. Tippi McCullough, Little Rock Mayor Frank Scott, Little Rock Ward 3 City Director Kathy Webb, Little Rock Ward 4 City Director Capi Peck, and City Director Dean Kumpuris.

Griffin delighted the gathering by announcing that he will aside $500,000 from a $64 million settlement with Monsanto Corp., for PCB pollution dating to the 1970s. Griffin said $32 million is guaranteed, and that his office will dedicate a large portion to protecting water quality.

"I've got some big announcements about this a week from tomorrow (Nov. 6) that will be jointly with a number of state agencies," Griffin said. "It will relate to bodies of water all around the state that I'm seeking to help clean and rebuild certain riparian banks and all the stuff that keeps sediment from flowing."

Sediment, Griffin said, is the state's most prevalent pollutant. Coleman Creek, which flows through War Memorial Park and forms the derelict fishing pond, is especially vulnerable to siltation, which occurs at every wide, deep hole it encounters. The War Memorial Park fishing pond, which was built to provide a public fishing opportunity in an urban setting, is no longer fishable because settlement has turned it into a shallow wetland.

"I'm very interested in the whole park," Griffin said. "This is a place for the whole state, and part of that is getting the water right."

War Memorial Park Restoration, founded by Steve Davison of Little Rock, solicited estimates for three restoration plans. The group settled on the least expensive option, which calls for dredging the mud out of the pond and creating a diversity of structure for fish. That option will cost $750,000, but that would only be a temporary repair that will not deter sediment from refilling the pond.

Griffin said a more permanent solution is necessary to develop the park into a central recreation feature.

"A lot of the recreation that will revolve around this will be water based, and so we've got to have the pond right," Griffin said. "To get the pond right, you've got to have the creek right, and to keep the creek right you've got to have it structurally sound, and you've got to have some processes in place to ensure that it's not a one-time cleanup.

"One-time cleanups are better than no cleanups, but they're not the solution" Griffin continued. "We'll hold on to this money, and I'll be a partner with you as this goes forward."

As a Little Rock resident who is raising children in the city, Griffin said that restoring the fishing pond is important to him personally.

"It's personal for all of us," Griffin said. "It's also a great cause, but it's personal because it's where we live. The potential for this for anybody who's been outside of this region, looking at what people have elsewhere, the potential for this is extraordinary. It's exceptional. But we're going to have to build it one piece at a time."

Griffin's pledge is still $250,000 shy of the target required for the stopgap dredging option. Restoring stream banks will cost multiple millions. Griffin did not identify sources for the balance.

As we mentioned in this space on Thursday, this project is a prime candidate for a Federal Aid in Sportfish Restoration (Dingell-Johnson Act) grant. The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission has a lot of experience restoring degraded stream banks and resurrecting dead patches of creeks around the state. Crooked Creek at the Fred Berry Conservation Education Center near Yellville and Spadra Creek in Clarksville are high-profile examples. The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission also assists private landowners in restoring riparian habitat on private land around the state.

Griffin startled us when he said that PCB pollution had never been a major issue in Arkansas. Lake Saracen, formerly Lake Pine Bluff, was so laden with PCBs that the state issued a fish consumption advisory in the 1980s. PCB pollution at Bayou Meto Wildlife Management Area was so extensive that it hermaphroditism in native wood ducks that was documented into the 1990s.

Ironically, sediment buried and nuetralized the PCB loads at both locations, but Arkansas deserves to be compensated for the damage. It's highly appropriate that some of that money be used to create a riparian showcase in the middle of Little Rock.

Bryan Hendricks has been the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette outdoors editor since 2005. He covers hunting, fishing, camping, and all other outdoor activities in The Natural State, as well as the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission. Bryan has won 30-plus awards for his work, including the Arkansas Press Association Freedom of Information Award, Service to Freedom of Information Award (Associated Press Managing Editors), Reporting on Freedom of Information Issues Award (Society of Professional Journalists), the John Robert Starr Award for Excellence in Journalism, and the Arkansas Wildlife Federation Conservation Communicator of the Year Award.

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