Hinkson Creek still decades away from possibly being cleaned

It has been 20 years since a lawsuit was filed to start the process of cleaning up Hinkson Creek. Since then, some progress has been made, but not enough for the water body to be considered “not impaired.”

In 1996, Hinkson Creek was put on the Missouri Department of Natural Resources impaired-water list for not meeting aquatic life standards. In 1998, a lawsuit was filed by the Sierra Club saying that the EPA and state didn’t perform a total maximum daily load (TMDL), which shows how much pollution a body of water can receive before it becomes impaired. The Sierra Club won, resulting in the state, city of Columbia and Boone County coming up with recommendations to fix it.

One of the ways the different entities started was by creating a collaborative action management team, or CAM, that gives all three time to find ways to improve Hinkson without having to implement more drastic and potentially expensive measures. The team was created in 2011 and continues to have regular public meetings.

According to regulators, 126 parts per million of E.coli is dangerous. Over the years, Hinkson Creek has seen E.coli levels fluctuate. In 2004, reports show levels reached 9,676 and within the same year saw numbers as low at 6. The most recent test in 2018 showed numbers at one testing date 613.1 and another at 40.

Erin Keys, who works for the city of Columbia as the engineering and operations manager, also part of CAM, told ABC 17 News that “those scores vary quite a bit depending on how much rainfall we’ve had. Also how much rainfall we’ve had just prior to them monitoring what the weather was like,” she said. “There are just a lot of variables involved in that score. When you have rainfall you are washing all that material off the streets, off the yard into the creek. We know bacteria levels go up during a rain event, and the further away you get from a rain event it tends to go down.”

Ken Midkiff, who has been an activist to fix the Hinkson Creek since the late 90s told ABC 17 News one solution for the city to consider is to eliminate the runoff entering into the creek, mainly due to development nearby.

Keys said that the city has been doing that. “We instituted ordinance changes in 2008, requiring developers to do more as far as both water quantity and water quality, because they are interrelated. So any new development that goes in, they are required to install a detention but also install best management practices,” Keys said. “I would say new development is doing their part, it’s the existing development that is going to take time to treat.”

John Hoke, environmental manager with the Water Protection Program with the Missouri Department of Natural Resources, told ABC 17 News it could take decades before the creek gets off the impaired bodies of water list.

“It’s a watershed scale problem, it takes a long, long time to get the pieces in place to clean up impaired waters,” Hoke said. “Hinkson Creek is one of the complex impairment problems we have, it can take decades.”

ABC 17 News Sunshine requested financial documents on how much money has been spent on testing of water bodies in Boone County. From 1996 to 2018, there was a budget of $34,152; $28,139.08 was used. An additional $15,154 was used for a separate test of bacteria in Hinkson Creek.

The city told ABC 17 News they are trying to use taxpayer money wisely, instead of having to build facilities that could cost millions of dollars and might not treat the problem.

“Anything you do with a natural resources, like Hinkson Creek, it’s a very complicated ecosystem,” Keys said. “You’ve got to be really careful. You can’t just go in and assume one thing is going to provide the benefit that you want.”