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Preliminary findings regarding hydrocarbon levels in the Kenai River have revealed that after this past summer, the waterway is halfway to removing its "impaired" listing under the federal Clean Water Act.

"I'd say we're at least halfway home," said Robert Ruffner, president of the Kenai Watershed Forum, one of two independent organizations contracted by the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation to monitor water quality in the Kenai River during the king salmon fishery.

On July 19, 20 and 22, the watershed forum sampled water -- on the left and right sides of the river and from shallow and deep water -- from River Mile 1.5 and conducted aerial surveys to count the number of boats on the river, while Oasis Environmental Inc, an Anchorage consulting and engineering firm, sampled similarly at River Miles 5 and 10.1. Approximately 300 samples were taken.

"We didn't have any samples that came close to exceeding the state water quality standards (of 10 parts per billion)," Ruffner said, but was quick to point out that these are still the preliminary findings.

Still, he said there is no reason to believe the numbers do not accurately reflect the lowering of hydrocarbons.

"They're not going to go up. They may go down if anything as we scrutinize more," he said.

At its historic worst, the Kenai River yielded samples as high as 23 parts per billion, but this year, samples revealed a two-thirds reduction in hydrocarbons. At River Mile 1.5 the highest hydrocarbon level was seven parts per billion, while at River Mile 5 the highest was 5.02 parts per billion and at River Mile 10.1 the highest was 4.98 parts per billion.

"It's fantastic news. I'm glad we didn't enforce a change -- that was a hardship on some people -- without results," he said.

Ruffner attributed the success of hydrocarbon reductions to the conventional two-stroke motor ban that went into effect on the Kenai River in July.

"The four-stokes (and direct-injected two-stokes, which are also legal) are a more efficient, cleaner technology," he said.

The two-stoke ban was controversial and Ruffner said he did hear from fishermen that said they missed out on some quality king fishing this season because they couldn't afford the expense of a new motor to comply with the regulations.

"It wasn't without sacrifice, but we are happy it worked the way we thought it would," he said.

Ruffner said compliance with the ban was quite high, regardless of the user group.

"We had nearly 100 percent compliance within the sportfishery of the Kenai River Special Management Area Park Boundaries, and we had about 95 percent compliance in the personal-use fishery," he said.

Ruffner said the hydrocarbon reductions would have been even lower had it not been for the non-compliant five percent. Still, if these numbers hold next year, the Kenai River will be on the way to having it's "impaired" listing removed.

Joseph Robertia can be reached at joseph.robertia@peninsulaclarion.com.