Students Helping Arkansas City Target Storm Water Pollution

Graduate students from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock are offering ways to help the city of Benton, Ark., with its storm water pollution problems, according to a report in the Benton Courier.

The federal Environmental Protection Agency has given smaller cities across the nation until 2008 to implement storm water preservation plans. The Storm Water Phase II Final Rule is the next step in the EPA's effort to preserve, protect and improve the nation's resources from polluted storm water runoff.

Marsha Guffey of Bauxite is the students' instructor at UALR. As part of their politics and bureaucracy class, the students took on the project to fulfill the university's encouragement of "real-life projects," Guffey said.

She added that as part of the College of Professional Studies, the project gives the students "good practice to communicate with the public."

A number of students presented two proposals last week to Benton City Engineer Darryl Laws.

Laws commended the students, saying they did an "excellent" job in presenting their public education and awareness proposals. He said he has considered many aspects that the students touched on since becoming the city's engineer last year.

Laws noted that he would like the students present their proposals to the City Council at its December meeting.

Guffey, who represents Bauxite on Metroplan's board, said Benton Mayor Rick Holland expressed interest in having the students present pollution prevention proposals, knowing the city had to meet the Phase II requirement.

Both groups pointed out reasons a city needs a storm water plan. They include pesticides, lawn chemicals and other toxins, which end up in lakes and rivers, contaminating everybody's water supply.

Source: The Benton Courier