{"id":27344,"date":"2016-09-15T12:16:40","date_gmt":"2016-09-15T17:16:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/?p=27344"},"modified":"2016-09-15T12:16:40","modified_gmt":"2016-09-15T17:16:40","slug":"decades-after-turning-backs-on-risky-water-tulsans-wade-into-arkansas-river","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/2016\/09\/15\/decades-after-turning-backs-on-risky-water-tulsans-wade-into-arkansas-river\/","title":{"rendered":"Decades After Turning Backs on Risky Water, Tulsans Wade Into Arkansas River"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_27353\"  class=\"wp-caption module image right\" style=\"max-width: 620px;\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-27353\" alt=\"Floaters navigate their homemade raft down the Arkansas River in Tulsa, Okla., during the annual Great Raft Race on Labor Day 2016. \" src=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2016\/09\/STORY-9-14-ArkansasUpdatePic1-WEB.jpg\" width=\"620\" height=\"413\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2016\/09\/STORY-9-14-ArkansasUpdatePic1-WEB.jpg 620w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2016\/09\/STORY-9-14-ArkansasUpdatePic1-WEB-500x333.jpg 500w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2016\/09\/STORY-9-14-ArkansasUpdatePic1-WEB-150x100.jpg 150w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2016\/09\/STORY-9-14-ArkansasUpdatePic1-WEB-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 620px) 100vw, 620px\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Logan Layden \/ StateImpact Oklahoma<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Floaters navigate their homemade raft down the Arkansas River in Tulsa, Okla., during the annual Great Raft Race on Labor Day 2016.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">The section of the Arkansas River that runs through Tulsa is changing. For much of the city\u2019s history, business owners constructed buildings facing away from what has been considered a polluted eyesore. But now Tulsa is embracing its most prominent physical feature.<\/p><p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/w.soundcloud.com\/player\/?url=https%3A\/\/api.soundcloud.com\/tracks\/283054776&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&visual=false\" height=\"150\" width=\"100%\" frameborder=\"no\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p><p><!--more--><\/p><p>The Arkansas River has always been a critical tool for controlling flooding in the Tulsa area. Like many of the state\u2019s lakes and rivers, recreation has become one of its primary functions. But local leaders faced a tall task to change people\u2019s minds about the Arkansas River, which used to be tainted by pollution from nearby oil storage facilities and a wastewater treatment plant. But the river is now a lot cleaner than it used to be, and people\u2019s perceptions are changing, too.<\/p>\n<h3>Attitude adjustment<\/h3>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Thousands of spectators lined the Arkansas River to cheer eclectic, homemade skiffs in the annual Great Raft Race on Labor Day. The race is annual again, two decades after it was cancelled due to safety concerns. Jennifer Proffitt and her daughter are waiting for a raft, dubbed the \u2018Yacht of Fun,\u2019 to cross the finish line.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cThey improved it, made it a lot fuller,\u201d Proffitt says. \u201cMy husband used to come and watch the raft race as a kid. So he was excited to bring them out to watch it again, and they\u2019re excited about the revitalization of the river and the new park they\u2019re building.\u201d<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">The new park is called <a href=\"http:\/\/agatheringplacefortulsa.com\/\">A Gathering Place for Tulsa<\/a>. It\u2019s a massive green space being constructed along Riverside Drive featuring ponds, wetlands, a giant reading tree and playground. The park will also include businesses, like restaurants and a lodge. It\u2019s the vision of George Kaiser, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.forbes.com\/profile\/george-kaiser\/\">one of the richest people in the world<\/a>, native Tulsan and founder of the George Kaiser Family Foundation.<\/p>\n<h3>A Gathering Place for Tulsa<\/h3><p>Jeff Stava, A Gathering Place\u2019s executive director, says there\u2019s a common theme among the world\u2019s great cities: Great parks.<\/p><p>\u201cTulsa has a great park system, but it\u2019s fairly spread out. And we have never, in his mind, really taken the Arkansas River and embraced it,\u201d Stava says.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Kaiser\u2019s foundation donated <a href=\"http:\/\/www.tulsaworld.com\/newshomepage3\/kaiser-foundation-donates-a-gathering-place-to-river-parks-authority\/article_6091fc55-f5ed-52e2-b381-bed1abd8d474.html\">$200 million of the $350 million dollar cost of the of the project\u2019s construction<\/a>. Other private donations and public funds provide the rest. The first construction phase is expected to be completed by the end of 2017, weather permitting. Crews pull sand and soil from the river bottom to use for construction, but that\u2019s hard to do when the river is full of water.<\/p><p>Still, Stava says construction has started on almost every major feature of the park.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_27354\"  class=\"wp-caption module image right\" style=\"max-width: 620px;\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-27354\" alt=\"A Gathering Place for Tulsa's executive director, Jeff Stava, at the park's construction sight in Tulsa, Okla. \" src=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2016\/09\/STORY-9-14-ArkansasUpdate-WEB2.jpg\" width=\"620\" height=\"465\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2016\/09\/STORY-9-14-ArkansasUpdate-WEB2.jpg 620w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2016\/09\/STORY-9-14-ArkansasUpdate-WEB2-500x375.jpg 500w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2016\/09\/STORY-9-14-ArkansasUpdate-WEB2-150x113.jpg 150w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2016\/09\/STORY-9-14-ArkansasUpdate-WEB2-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2016\/09\/STORY-9-14-ArkansasUpdate-WEB2-536x402.jpg 536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 620px) 100vw, 620px\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Logan Layden \/ StateImpact Oklahoma<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">A Gathering Place for Tulsa&#39;s executive director, Jeff Stava, at the park&#39;s construction sight in Tulsa, Okla.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Over Stava\u2019s shoulder, giant concrete tubes lay exposed. Eventually, Riverside Drive will run through the tunnels, under the park, turning the green space into a land bridge.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cEven the land bridges have these large berms on both sides, so that when you\u2019re walking across those bridges you won\u2019t see or hear the road,\u201d Stava says.<\/p>\n<h3>River revitalization<\/h3>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Stava says the park is a sign of changing attitudes toward the Arkansas River, which he says is often misunderstood. It\u2019s a prairie river, so it evacuates water in times of heavy rain, and is usually pretty dry otherwise.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cIt was never really looked at as a natural beauty, and a lot of our development looked away from it, and the backs of the developments were to the river,\u201d Stava says. \u201cThat mindset has really shifted or changed over the last five or six years.\u201d<\/p><p>When StateImpact visited parks along the Arkansas River in Tulsa <a href=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/2015\/10\/08\/tulsa-area-leaders-push-to-change-the-arkansas-rivers-tainted-image\/\">around this time last year<\/a>, the joggers, bicyclists, disc-golfers and dog-walkers liked being near the river, but not in it.<\/p><p>\u201cConsidering there\u2019s a treatment plant right over there, I wouldn\u2019t go swimming in the river,\u201d Tulsa resident Steve Smith said last fall as he finished his walk at the 41st Street Plaza, one of the popular parks along the river.<\/p><p>\u201cI\u2019d be kind of scared to go into the river,\u201d Julianne Romanello said while her two children crawled on the nearby playground equipment.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">There used to be good reason for people to shy away from the waters of the Arkansas River. Backup from storm water drainage and wastewater treatment systems caused untreated water to flow into the river. Abandoned well sites and a tank farm leached pollution into the Arkansas. \u00a0In addition to pollution concerns, there were physical obstacles in the usually shallow river that made it unsafe to be in.<\/p><p>The <a href=\"http:\/\/www.owrb.ok.gov\/quality\/monitoring\/monitoring.php\">EPA still officially cautions<\/a> that the waters of the Arkansas through Tulsa aren\u2019t safe to ingest, unlike most other recreational waters in Oklahoma. The process is underway to change that, but it takes a while.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Floaters today seem happy to be enjoying the Arkansas River in this new, old way. Back at the Great Raft Race, no one seems to care about EPA\u2019s warning. Dana Birkes is all smiles as she disembarks from her \u2018Flotilla the Fun.\u2019<\/p><p>\u201cIt was fun,\u201d she says, Viking helmet still propped on her head. \u201cWe\u2019ve even got beer cupholders and we have a cooler in the middle.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The section of the Arkansas River that runs through Tulsa is changing. For much of the city\u2019s history, business owners constructed buildings facing away from what has been considered a polluted eyesore. But now Tulsa is embracing its most prominent physical feature.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":27353,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[491],"tags":[681,499,174,427,600],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27344"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/42"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27344"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27344\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27361,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27344\/revisions\/27361"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27353"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27344"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27344"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27344"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}