Progress [?] In the Ozarks

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Report From Them That's Doin'

Until we subscribed to MOTHER—and started reading articles like Sharon Kruse's "Up on the Farm" (MOTHER NOS. 29 and 42), Mary Jo Frolick's "Report From the Ozarks" (MOTHER NO. 30), and Paul Durand's "More on Ozarks Living" (MOTHER NO. 33), among others—my husband and I had no idea how popular our Arkansas Ozarks were among back-to-the-landers. (And we've lived in these mountains, on 160 acres south of the city of Fayetteville, since 1968! )

After residing here for several years, we can understand why the region has become so popular: It's as beautiful and serene a piece of the country as anyone could hope to find. We want to alert MOTHER's readers, however, to the presence of a snake in our Ozarks "Garden of Eden". The name of the serpent is Progress . . . and the foul plans being perpetrated in its name stand a good chance of spoiling these mountains for all who live here, unless something is done soon.

Here are just a few of the ways in which Progress has recently reared its ugly head in this area:

[1] The Southwestern Electric Power Company (SWEPCO)—despite the efforts of organized grassroot and professional opposition—is going ahead with the construction of a coal-powered electric generating plant in rural Benton County, in the northwest corner of the state. (The plant will burn high-sulfur coal that's been strip mined in Wyoming and hauled in by train.) The Good Guys had the important facts on their side—holes in SWEPCO's environmental impact statement, data on emissions from the burning of low-grade coal, etc. —but the bulldozers are running just the same

[2] The "feasibility" of a regional jetport has recently been studied again. This land-eating, earshattering 1,500-acre behemoth has already been voted down by rural residents twice. Next time around, though—probably in 1977—there won't be any two-county referendum. Instead, because the cities of Fayetteville and Springdale will own the "regional" airport, only city residents (spurred on by Chamber of Commerce and Frontier Airline public relations campaigns) will get the chance to vote.

As for "feasibility": At least one researcher for the consulting firm in charge of the latest study was forbidden from coming up with any results that might contradict the development's feasibility.

[3] Last fall, Federal Soil Conservation Service scientists released findings on the suitability of Ozarks soil for septic system drainage . . . findings which indicated that—because of the underlying Swiss-cheese-like limestone deposits in this area—only a few local soil types could be used in conjunction with septic systems without causing contamination of the ground water.

Obviously, industrialization of the area (which is already underway) will attract more people, who—in turn—will build more septic tanks. And the cities are running out of places in which to dump their wastes. Where will new landfills be put? That's right: In the farmers' and homesteaders' backyards. And their ponds, wells, and streams will get the semi-treated or untreated runoff water (such as has already happened near the town of Rogers, in Benton County, where the water supply is now contaminated).

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