50 attend Watershed meeting

Approximately 50 people met Thursday to give opinions, express fears and generally discuss the quality of water in the Spring River as it flows through Carthage.

Dan Downing, with the University of Missouri Extension Service, led the initial meeting of a proposed Spring River Watershed Improvement group at the Carthage Technical Center.

Individuals within the group that met on Thursday expressed a number of concerns about the river and about potential plans to deal with pollutants.

Discussions focused on the section of Spring River that runs through Carthage and for a few miles on either side of town.

Ben Fizzette, a part-time farmer who lives in northeast Jasper County, and a number of other farmers, expressed concerns that the group would focus on agriculture sources of pollution and ignore the person in town applying too much fertilizer to a yard.

“My concern is where I farm, we will use the same amount of chemicals and fertilizers on five or six acres of land that many homeowners in Carthage or Joplin or Springfield will use on a quarter-acre lot or less,” Fizzette said. “We’ve all seen that, go to Lowe’s on Saturday and while people load their pickups and cars up with all this and you know they’re not going back and farming with it. I’m a little concerned that as we start leading to nutrient levels in the water or even some pesticides that agriculture will get the bad press for it when in reality that’s not the case.”

Donna Zink, who lives in rural Jasper County east of Carthage, said she was concerned about all the poultry litter produced on turkey farms in the area or trucked in from McDonald or Newton counties and spread as fertilizer on farm fields.

Zink said she was concerned about people who throw out trash as they drive down the road.

“Education is another really important factor,” said Donna Zink, rural Carthage. “People are dumping and they’re not even thinking. It’s a thought process when it comes to waste, out of sight, out of mind. It’s like the universe is so big this is not important.”

Clyde Beaver and William Cummins, both of Carthage, said they were concerned about trash in and along the river, especially in the Walnut Bottoms area between Kendricktown and Carthage on north Garrison Street.

“I wish it was cleaned up,” Beaver said.

“That’s my problem too,” Cummins added. “The Walnut Bottoms area, that’s the problem right there. I’ve tried to fish in it and I have caught fish in it that I could not eat. It stunk to high heaven. There are some good fish in there and there are some bad stuff.”

Shirley Millsap, who lives downstream of Walnut Bottoms, said flooding makes the problem worse.

“When we first bought our place in 2000, I couldn’t understand how cans and bottles and debris would get out in the middle of the woods,” said Shirley Millsap, Carthage. “Then we had some floods and I know how it gets out there now.”

Downing said a representative of the Jasper County Health Department will write up a proposal using the comments collected in four breakout sessions at this meeting.

The group will hold another meeting in the next few weeks to discuss and refine that proposal and then it will be used to apply for seed money to start a Spring River watershed improvement group.

The group will encourage voluntary efforts reduce the level of pollution entering the river and improve the quality of the water in the river.