The Spring River is a 129-mile-long (208 km)[1] waterway located in southwestern Missouri, southeastern Kansas, and northeastern Oklahoma.It passes under I-44 again southeast of Quapaw and enters the Neosho River at the north end of the Grand Lake of the Cherokees west of Wyandotte.The river was important to Native American tribes and later European-American settlers in Lawrence and Jasper County, especially around Carthage, where it was not yet too wide to dam.Numerous industries, mines, subdivisions, and mobile home parks, all have permits to discharge treated wastes into Spring River watershed.Potential sources of non-point source pollution in the basin include: runoff from mine tailings and active mining sites, dairy operations, poultry husbandry, sedimentation from erosion in disturbed watersheds, sludge application from sewage treatment facilities, seepage from septic tanks, and runoff from urban areas.