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<br />:: .' <br /> <br />Most communities in the basin provide for sewage treatment to a greater <br />or lesser extent before discharging to a receiving stream. Low summer stream <br />flow makes treatment a requirement if nuisance conditions in the streams are <br />to be avoided. Wastes from petroleum and gas production and processing com- <br />plicate the pollution problem in some areas. <br /> <br />There are some 71 sewered communities serving an estimated 272,341 <br />persons. Of the 71 sewered communities, 6 having 17,477 persons (~) provide <br />no treatment and 41, having treatment facilities serving 159,553 (5%) are <br />considered inadequate as to capacity. <br /> <br />o <br /> <br />~ <br />w <br />N <br />N <br /> <br />Surface waters for municipal use are generally not available without <br />impoundment in the upper Red River basin. Impoundments for new sources of <br />supply are urgently needed, but extreme care must be taken to assure vater <br />is of satisfactory quality before dams are constructed. Increasing u13e of <br />ground water for irrigation continues to lower the ground water table in the <br />entire panhandle area. Due to pumping costs irrigation water is depleted <br />beyond economic limits long before ground water shortages for municipal <br />supplies become critical. <br /> <br />Lower Red River Basin (below Denison Dam) <br /> <br />A number of communities i~ this basin use surface vater as a source of <br />public water supply, however, water from the main stem is not used for a <br />municipal supply. Ground vater sources are used by the smaller communities. <br /> <br />Records available on Muddy Boggy Creek, Kiamichi River, Little River, <br />and Mountain Fork River show that vater in these streams is low in dissolved <br />solids and average orily 20 ppm in total hardness. Water in the Mountain Fork <br />is nearly constant in analysis regardless of discharge. The average mineral <br />concentration of the Red River near Fulton, Arkansas is about half that at <br />Lake Texoma. Cossatot and Saline Rivers, tributary to the Red in Arkansas, <br />contain excellent quality water. <br /> <br />Stream pollution in the basin results from inadequate sevage and waste <br />disposal practices. Pollution of surface waters affects their use for water <br />supplies in some areas. Pollution of both surface and ground vaters results <br />from discharge of wastes from oil fields or from oil processing plants. <br /> <br />Sulphur River is periodically contaminated with salt from oil field <br />vaste which sometimes comes down the river in "slugs." Cypress Creek con- <br />tains very little dissolved material. Water in the Sulphur River and Cypress <br />Creek is at times highJ.y colored. There are no continuous records of vater <br />quality in the Red River basin in Louisiana, but considerable poilution from <br />oil fields occurs and the Red River at Shreveport is reportedly unfit for <br />public vater supplies. <br /> <br />Shreveport, Louisiana developed Cross Lake as an impounded supply <br />because of the undesirable characteristics of the Red River water. <br /> <br />5-16 <br />