Measuring Water Quality on the West Fork

Haley McLaughlin, a senior majoring in biological and agricultural engineering and an employee of the Arkansas Water Resources Center, collects a water sample at Baptist Ford on the West Fork of the White River.
Russell Cothren

Haley McLaughlin, a senior majoring in biological and agricultural engineering and an employee of the Arkansas Water Resources Center, collects a water sample at Baptist Ford on the West Fork of the White River.

The West Fork of the White River is a pretty little stream that starts high up in the Boston Mountains around Winslow. By the time it ends, roughly 28 miles downstream where it merges with the river's main fork east of Fayetteville, the river is in pretty bad shape.

Which is a problem, because 20 miles north of this confluence, the White River forms Beaver Lake, a 31,000-acre reservoir that provides drinking water for roughly half a million people.

Read what the Arkansas Water Resources Center is doing to monitor and improve conditions on the West Fork in Research Frontiers.

Contacts

Brian Haggard, director, Arkansas Water Resources Center
Biological and Agricultural Engineering
479-575-2879, haggard@uark.edu

Matt McGowan, science and research communications officer
University Relations
479-575-4246, dmcgowa@uark.edu

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