STEVE FILIPEK, Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, #2 Natural Resources Drive, Little Rock, Arkansas 72205, USA

Instream gravel mining has been one of the traditional sources of gravel in the uplands of Arkansas. Increased demand for this product for road, parking lot, and house construction prompted a closer look at this use of Arkansas stream resources. Several studies conducted in 1990-1992 by the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission and others were the basis for a bill submitted to the Arkansas legislature by the Arkansas Department of Pollution Control and Ecology (ADCPE) in 1993. This bill would prohibit commercial instream gravel mining on Extraordinary Resource Waterbodies (ERW), about 24 streams and lakes designated as unique biological, physical, or recreational waterbodies. Although the bill was signed into law (Act 378 of 1993), the ADCPE, under pressure from gravel miners and politicians, placed a moratorium on the enforcement of the law for two years to give miners time to find new sources of gravel. In 1995, gravel miners and politicians discussed repealing the 1993 legislation. Several agencies together developed a video demonstrating the effects of gravel mining of streams. In 1995, a second bill was passed (Act 1345 of 1995) which prohibited gravel mining in ERW. The process of getting this legislation passed and the efforts by those opposed to gravel mining regulations are reviewed.