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Washita River (NPS Photo) |
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Water quality in a river that flows through tractless miles of agricultural lands cannot reasonably be expected to be pristine. Such is the case with the Washita River. Only a mile and a quarter of it exists on park land. Therefore most of what is introduced to the river upstream from the site is out of park control. Water quality testing that has been done in the park has indicated elevated levels of agricultural pesticides and fecal coliform. What is more worrisome to the park is any future increase in the dissolved solid component or the river as measured by conductivity. A spike in these figures could indicate a major influx of chlorides from a breach in upstream oil mining waste pits. The park is currently gathering baseline water quality data as a standard against which future data can be compared.
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