This document constitutes the comments of Mississippi River Collaborative and Environmental Law & Policy Center of the Midwest regarding the Frequently Asked Questions: Implementing the 2021 Recommended Clean Water Act 304(a) Ambient Water Quality Criteria to Address Nutrient Pollution in Lakes and Reservoirs (January 2023) The Mississippi River Collaborative is a partnership of environmental organizations […]
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The Mississippi River Collaborative (MRC) consists of ten state organizations – as well as other regional and national partners – working to protect water quality in the Mississippi River Basin and the Gulf of Mexico. The MRC strongly supports the Fox River Implementation Plan (FRIP) insofar as it supports dam removal and associated riparian restoration, […]
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Date: February 4, 2022 To: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency From: Mississippi River Collaborative RE: Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-OW-2021-0602 – Revised Definition of Waters of the United States Members of the Mississippi River Collaborative (MRC) urge U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) to: The Mississippi River Collaborative […]
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Date: December 14, 2021 To: Mississippi River/Gulf of Mexico Hypoxia Task Force From: Mississippi River Collaborative RE: Written Testimony for December 2021 Hypoxia Task Force Meeting Members of the Mississippi River Collaborative (MRC) look forward to continuing to work with the Task Force. The Mississippi River Collaborative consists of ten state organizations – […]
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Today, Missouri Coalition for the Environment (MCE) sued the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for not protecting Missouri lakes for recreation and drinking water use, and therefore not protecting human health. “Without scientific support for how it would protect public health, Governor Parson’s DNR removed drinking water protections from its proposed lake nutrient criteria,” said Heather […]
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The Clean Water Act is a massive and wonderful piece of legislation that drastically improved water quality in the United States and stands as a beacon of light in the dark world of ongoing water pollution. But it has a huge gap. Once a year, scientists board a boat in the Gulf of Mexico and […]
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Tags: clean water, clean water act, dead zone, water pollution
Regulating agricultural pollution is both difficult and contentious. US EPA has left this burden to state governments, and the pursuit of special interests from farmer associations hinder any real progress. Mississippi River Collaborative specializes in the enforcement of the Clean Water Act, but since agricultural pollution is exempt from CWA regulations, MRC must seek out […]
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Last week, Iowa’s Environmental Protection Commission chose to reject a petition from MRC member group Iowa Environmental Council (IEC) that asked for better water quality protections for Iowa’s recreational lakes. Iowa has 160 recreational lakes. In the last 12 years, IDNR has closed the state’s beaches nearly 200 times because of harmful algal blooms (HABs) […]
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On November 1, Iowa Environmental Council (IEC) and Environmental Law & Policy Center (ELPC) filed a petition asking Iowa’s Department of Natural Resources (DNR) to establish and enforce numeric criteria for significant Iowa lakes. The petition was filed with Iowa’s Environmental Protection Commission (EPC), the agency that will then make a recommendation to DNR to […]
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EPA approves two methods to determine whether a waterbody is impaired: narrative and numeric. Narrative criteria are subjective. Numeric criteria are not. Narrative criteria are difficult to enforce. Numeric criteria – much less so. This fact is known by the EPA, but the agency – to date – has not assumed the responsibility to establish […]
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