Baylor Professor’s Study Helps Settle Long-standing Water Quality Dispute Between Oklahoma and Arkansas

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For more than three decades, a legal dispute raged between Oklahoma and Arkansas over acceptable phosphorus levels in the scenic waterways along the Illinois River. The issue eventually reached the U.S. Supreme Court in 1992. A three-year study conducted by Ryan S. King, Ph.D., professor of biology in Baylor’s College of Arts & Sciences, recently helped settle the long-standing dispute by estimating phosphorus levels in the Illinois River and nearby rivers and streams that could result in undesirable water quality and aesthetics.