Mission Statement

Missouri Coalition for the Environment works to preserve, protect, and enhance an environment that is livable, healthful, and sustainable through a comprehensive program of education, citizen action, and legal defense.

Report on the Issues 2007

The Coalition staff and our legal and technical team at the Interdisciplinary Environmental Clinic at Washington University have attended numerous stakeholder meetings sponsored by the Missouri Dept. of Natural Resources to develop the new standards.

The key issues are:

Antidegradation standards and an implementation plan:

This provision of the Clean Water Act is designed to keep clean streams clean. It prohibits dischargers from degrading the stream. The antidegradation work group has met for more than a year. They developed an antidegradation proposal for Missouri waters. The plan encountered opposition from Missouri dischargers and has been revamped. The Missouri Clean Water Commission will decide on the newest version of the proposal at a special April 20 meeting. Implementing the standards by rulemaking is expected to take another year or more. Missouri polluters have been aggressive in attempting to weaken these rules. They find sympathy with the body that will approve the final rules, the Clean Water Commission. The Coalition is pressing for an effective implementation plan that will protect our waters.

Nutrient Standards:

Missouri , and the rest of the nation, is struggling to develop standards for nitrogen and phosphorus in waters. These nutrients, in reasonable amounts, fertilize crops and fields. In excess amounts, they can runoff into waters where they cause algal blooms and excessive oxygen demand – choking aquatic life in a tragic event called hypoxia. Hypoxia occurs on small and large scales. Every summer in the Gulf of Mexico, a recurring zone of hypoxia develops. It has come to be called the “dead zone”.

Nutrient pollution from the states in the Mississippi River Basin contributes to the dead zone problem. Reducing nutrients in Missouri waters will help reduce our contribution to the problem and improve local water quality for fish and drinking water. The Coalition continues to work for meaningful nutrient standards. We expect the work to continue through 2008.

Unclassified Streams:

Of Missouri ’s 110,000 miles of streams, 84,000 miles remain unclassified. That is, there are no designated uses assigned to these water bodies. They receive a bare minimum of protections. Technically, only the narrative and acute criteria of Missouri ’s water quality standards apply to them. Missouri ’s narrative criteria state that waters shall be free from oil, scum, floating debris, unsightly odors or colors, toxic substances in amounts that are harmful to human, animal or aquatic life, and waters shall be free from appliances, cars, tires, demolition wastes, or substances or changes that would impair the natural biological community. Acute criteria require that the water must not kill fish within four days. These narrative criteria are rarely enforced on unclassified waters. In Missouri , 82% of all water pollution discharge permits issued in2002 w3ere for discharges to unclassified waters. The Coalition is pressing for the fishable/swimmable uses to apply to all waters of Missouri – thereby improving water quality standards in unclassified streams with regards to bacteria, and ultimately, nutrient pollution.

MDNR abandoned the unclassified streams stakeholder process shortly after it was begun in 2006. The agency has indicated that it will reactivate that work group soon. The Coalition is collecting data and working to persuade the regulators to apply default protections to all Missouri waters.

The UAA protocol is an equally giant loophole that effectively guts protections for classified waters. MDNR not only aggressively promoted the procedure to sewage treatment facilities that otherwise would have been required to disinfect under the new rule, but it also conducted hundreds of UAAs itself, using taxpayer dollars to remove WBCR protections from waters. In the fall of 2006, the EPA completed a review on the 142 UAAs the state had submitted and rejected 99 of them. MDNR is working to develop a UAA method that is more scientific and that will not be so easily rejected by the EPA. It continues to conduct UAAs at taxpayer expense with the goal of removing water quality protections for classified waters. The bottom line for Missourians will be more bacteria and pathogens in our waters until we close this loophole. The Coalition is poised to counter the next round of UAAs and to engage the public in protecting our streams.

Wetlands

Missouri ’s wetlands are a vanishing resource. About 87% of the state’s historic wetlands have been destroyed. The U.S. Army Corps of engineers wants to take out 80,000 more acres of floodways and wetlands in its St. John’s Bayou/New Madrid Floodway project.

Wetlands provide habitat for fish, amphibians, and migratory birds. They also filter pollutants that would otherwise pollute rivers and streams. They are home to complex ecosystems with amazing biodiversity. They help control floods and also store water that feeds streams during times of drought.

Section 404 of the Clean Water Act is designed to minimize damage to wetlands or to compensate for unavoidable loss or damage. It requires entities seeking to destroy streams or wetlands to:

1. Avoid the impact, if possible, by choosing a new site.

2. Minimize the damage, by designing the project in a way that reduces damage.

3. Mitigate the impacts by compensating with wetland development elsewhere.

In practice, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the permit-granting agency in this case, almost never interprets the law as strictly as it was intended (President Bush I once said, “no net loss of wetlands.”). Instead, developers skip to step 2 and 3.

The Corps is not enforcing regulations or monitoring mitigation sites. This lack ofenforcement has created an environment in which streams and wetlands are destroyed and nonexistent or shoddy wetlands are created to “replace” them. The goal of “no net loss” is a long way off. The Coalition is working to change this culture so that regulations are enforced, wetlands preserved, and mitigation projects are effective. We critique permits and submit comments on proposed projects. We investigate mitigation sites and bring failures to the attention of the Corps. We will bring lawsuits as necessary. Our goal is to make sure Section 404 works as it was intended.

The Washington University Interdisciplinary Environmental Clinic is representing the Coalition in a lawsuit challenging an Army Corps of Engineers plan that will, in effect, destroy the St. John’s Bayou in southeastern Missouri . In a related matter, the Coalitionhas sued the Corps for its refusal to produce documents related to a large-scale flood study of the Missouri , Mississippi , and Illinois rivers. The study is controversial and has significant negative implications for management of the rivers. In April, 2007, a judge ruled in the Corps favor, supporting the Corps’ arguments that documents should not be made public.

Floodplain Protection

In May 2006, a court ruled against our challenge to a 1,600 acre commercial development in the Confluence floodplain in St. Peters . The project will impact tens ofthousands of acres in the floodplains of the Mississippi and Missouri rivers through induced flooding. Though the legal challenge failed, the Coalition continues to work with allies on floodplain protection.

One measure that would help protect floodplains is prohibiting the use of Tax Incentive Financing (TIF) to develop floodplains. The Coalition and its allies have succeeded in having language that would help protect floodplains incorporated into TIF reform bills for the past two years. However, the General Assembly has failed to move the legislation through. We need your help to spread the word that Missouri tax money should not be used to turn floodplains into shopping malls.

Sewage

No one likes to talk about it but sewage is part of our civilization. However, it poses serious threats to public health and aquatic life if it contaminates streams and drinking water supplies. Sewage can contain bacteria, pathogens, sediments, and chemicals. Poorly managed sewer systems can pollute rivers, streams, and basements.

Sewage lagoons are the waste treatment option of choice in many rural areas for subdivisions, schools, and small towns. They are cheap to build and cheap to operate. Unfortunately, if not designed or maintained well, they threaten waters with a bath of raw sewage or they can leak into groundwater. The Coalition has found that the State of Missouri often ignores its own statutes for sewer lagoons. The Missouri Department of Natural Resources continues to issue permits to lagoons that are polluting waterways and failing to perform properly. Requiring compliance is an afterthought in some cases. The Coalition has reviewed more than 100 of these permits and is pressing for improvements in each case and in the lagoon program as a whole. We have succeeded in strengthening some permits and improving enforcement.

The solutions require more attention to permits and enforcement, but also a broader commitment to upgrading sewer treatment technologies for growing towns. One of the complicating factors is that the Water Program at the Missouri Department of Natural Resources remains severely underfunded and understaffed. Politically, there is often resistance to committing public resources to adequately fund sewage treatment. Treatment plants, though they protect our waters, are not sexy. The Coalition works to increase awareness of the value of clean water and to advocate for an adequately funded regulatory program.

On April 13, the Coalition let the St. Louis Metropolitan Sewer District (MSD) know that it is planning to file a Clean Water Act citizen suit for ongoing violations of the Clean WaterAct. The MSD system discharges raw sewage into area streams and rivers at about 500 locations in the metropolitan area. A comprehensive plan and a timetable for addressing sewer overflows is still not in place, though overflows have been a concern for nearly 20 years. MSD has failed to meet deadlines for plans to address overflows. For more details on the MSD situation, please see our website at www.moenviron.org/MSD.asp.

Impaired Waters

In October, the state released their 2004/2006 list of impaired waters, the list of streams harmed by pollution of some kind. They de-listed 165 waters and added 40 new ones leaving 82 impaired waters listed. We found that DNR de-listed many of the streams not because they have been cleaned up, but for other, more bureaucratic reasons. We submitted comments in January challenging the list.

Your Involvement:

Citizen involvement is key to protecting our waters. Do you have a stream that you care about? Let us know what it is and become an advocate yourself. Learn how you can protect your local watershed on our website at the Water Quality Information Clearinghouse: www.moenviron.org/wqichome.asp

Friends of Ozark Riverways

When created in 1964 Missouri’s largest national park, the Ozark National Scenic Riverways (Riverways), encompassing 134 miles of the Current and Jacks Fork Rivers, represented a promise to preserve, to protect, and to interpret the natural and cultural features of these unspoiled Ozark highlands, free-flowing waters, and breathtaking springs. That promise has not been fulfilled.

Although many view the Riverways as the single most important unit of public land in the State of Missouri , there has been little citizen oversight of the management of the Riverways. In recent years, it has become apparent that overuse and lax management have nearly destroyed the high quality outdoor recreation experience the Riverways once provided and have endangered its future. In the fall of 2006, the National Park Service began the process of updating the Riverways General Management Plan. This Plan will guide the NPS in its decisions regarding the Riverways for more than a decade. Thepriorities established in the Plan influence whether the Riverways’ resources are protected as Congress originally intended or are allowed to be degraded. Friends of the Ozark Riverways and the Coalition are advocating that the General Management Plan must restore, recover, and protect this Ozark gem. The Coalition is working with Friends of Ozark Riverways and other allies to advocate for an improved management plan, and to watch dog current management decisions at the Riverways.

Protecting Our Parks

Increasingly, developers are eyeing parkland for their projects. Governments attracted to the lure of tax proceeds, are susceptible to bids to give up parks for pavement. The Coalition has been a staunch defender of parkland throughout its history. The Coalition endorsed St. Louis ’ Proposition P to protect urban parks. The Proposition, a St. Louis City Charter Amendment that passed with nearly 70% of the vote, requires a vote of the people before city officials can dispose of parkland. Citizens to Protect Forest Park led the successful effort for Proposition P. The group opposed a deal the City brokered behind closed doors between BJC Healthcare to “lease” the hospital 12 acres of parkland for a construction project. Citizens to Protect Forest Park’s opposition did not stop the deal, but it did force the City to negotiate better terms that will benefit Forest Park and all othercity parks for decades to come.

Radioactive Waste

The U.S. EPA has proposed to leave radioactive waste in the floodplain of the Missouri River near Earth City in St. Louis County . In 1973, trucks loaded with radioactive waste,dumped the material in West Lake Landfill, an old limestone quarry that had been converted to a landfill for garbage and construction waste. In the decades since, some of the radioactive material has migrated offsite through erosion and neglect, and some has seeped into groundwater.

In the fall of 2006, the EPA Superfund program held public meetings to discuss their plan to address the site. Their plan is to cover the site with clean material and leave it in place upstream from two drinking water intakes. The Coalition opposes the EPA plan because it fails to address the threat to groundwater in the alluvial floodplain - groundwater that flows to the Missouri River , a major drinking water source. Strong opposition to the plan from St. Louis County government leaders might help win improvements in the plan, butthat opposition has not yet been forthcoming. We submitted comments on the plan and continue to monitor agency actions.

Renewable Energy

Installing solar panels, wind turbines and other renewable systems in Missouri ’s homes and businesses will move us towards a cleaner, more reliable and energy-independent future. Missouri ’s renewable energy policy lags behind most other states’. To catch up, Missouri needs simple interconnection rules and “true” net metering – policies proven to be effective in 41 states.

In Missouri , those who want to install renewable energy systems must first decipher complicated, non-standardized connection procedures. Missouri also uses an inequitable credit system that further discourages the use of renewable energy. Rather than providing consumers with full credit on their electricity bills for the renewable energy they produce, current rules provide for a credit of just 20 cents on the dollar.

In an exciting departure from Missouri politics-as-usual, A bi-partisan group of legislators has come together in this General Assembly to pass House Bill 869, the Easy Connection Act. The Easy Connection Act eliminates the major obstacles. It establishes standardized and simple procedures for connecting a renewable system to the electricity grid and provides a fair credit system for renewable energy produced . The Easy Connection Act is a critical step to advance the use of renewable energy in Missouri . The bill has moved farther than most predicted and, barring running out of time in the 2007 session, may pass this year.

After Easy Connection, the next step toward meaningful renewable energy policies in Missouri is Renewable Energy Standards. Current technology makes it economically viable for utilities to use Missouri ’s clean, renewable electricity as a significant portion of their electricity portfolio, but less than 0.1% of Missouri ’s energy is currently from clean, renewable resources. The benefits of renewable energy include energy independence, increased grid reliability, the creation of new jobs and industries, a reduction of Missouri’s “dollar drain” of imported energy, cleaner air, and reduced greenhouse emissions that contribute to climate change.

Renewable energy standards require that the state’s utilities obtain a certain percentage of their energy from clean, renewable source by a certain date. The Coalition is working with allies in support of clean energy benchmarks for Missouri at 2% by the end of 2009 stepping up to 20% by the end of 2020.

The majority in the General Assembly has been resistant to mandate standards (unless they involve ethanol) and supports “voluntary” standards (Renewable Energy Suggestions, you might say). Historically, “voluntary” targets have not been as effective at increasing the amount of renewable energy used by utilities. Twenty other states and Washington , DC have set Renewable Energy Standards – California will be at 20% by 2010, Texas at 5.5 by 2015, Colorado at 10% by 2015. Some of Missouri ’s rural electric cooperatives have already achieved significant movement towards these goals. The main opposition to mandates is coming from the Investor Owned Utilities (IOUs)- Ameren and Kansas City Power and Light. Join our effort to get Renewable Energy Standards set for Missouri and together we can move Missouri ahead.

Ozark Renewable Energy Expo

Last year, at the prompting of one of our visionary members and with lots of assistance from terrific volunteers, the Coalition organized the first Ozark Renewable Energy and Sustainable Living Expo. The event occurred on a 100-degree July weekend outside of Hermann, Missouri – and nevertheless attracted 800 people for a day of workshops, education, and hands-on demonstrations. The 2007 Expo will be September 22-23, outside Columbia , Missouri at Les Bourgeois Winery at Rocheport , Missouri . Please mark your calendars and call the Coalition office to get involved in the Expo.

Lead in the Air

The nation’s largest and only primary lead smelter in Herculaneum , Missouri has contaminated the area for more than a century with one of nature’s most potent neurotoxins. Lead causes a range of negative health impacts including developmental delays and lower IQ’s in exposed children. The St. Louis-based Doe Run Corporation operates the smelter. The company is in the process of seeking a Clean Air Act permit for the smelter. The facility has failed to achieve federal ambient air quality standards for most of the past 29 years since the standards existed. The Interdisciplinary Environmental Clinic at Washington University is representing the Coalition and its Herculaneum members in a challenge of the air permit. The Coalition is seeking a stronger permit with more monitoring, tighter standards, and more accountability.

On behalf of the Coalition, the Clinic, filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for its failure to review the National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS) for lead as required by the Clean Air Act. The Clean Air Act requires the standards to be reviewed every five years to ensure that they reflect the latest health-based science. The EPA had not reviewed the standard for the toxic metal lead since 1990 – nor had it adjusted the standard since it was established in 1978. In the mean time, health research has shown that there is no safe level of exposure to lead for children. When the EPA set the original standard in 1978, health experts had set the blood lead level of concern at 30 micrograms per deciliter. Today’s standard is 10 with acknowledgment that damage occurs at even lower levels.

In 2005, a federal judge ordered the EPA to conduct the review. That process will continue until September 2008, when the standard is to be finalized. In December, 2006 halfway through the review process, the EPA suggested that it might eliminate the NAAQS for lead entirely. The suggestion had been mentioned in a letter from lead industry lobbyists earlier and found its way into the Staff Paper in the NAAQS review. The Coalition, with the Clinic’s assistance, has been aggressively opposing de-listing lead. De-regulating a pollutant that has been shown to be even more dangerous than previously believed, and one that continues to be ubiquitous makes no sense. The Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee, a committee of public health professionals that advises the EPA on such standards, has indicated their fierce opposition to the de-listing as well. The Coalition will continue to watch this proceeding. A stronger NAAQS will be a key to ending the rain of lead particles that have settled on Herculaneum for a century. On behalf of the Coalition, the Clinic has also submitted comments on the state’s plan to bring the Herculaneum smelter into compliance with federal ambient air standards, as well as the EPA’s plans to address contamination along Doe Run haul routes. Doe Run hauls lead concentrate from mills in Reynolds, Iron, and Dent counties to the smelter in Herculaneum and to a Cape Girardeau riverport. Lead mining operations throughout the area have left a legacy of contamination. Ongoing contamination from truck traffic exacerbates clean up efforts and creates new problems.

For more information on any of these campaigns and issues, please visit our website at www.moenviron.org or call us at (314) 727-0600.

Final Word: There are other issues in which we are active to some degree that are not included in detail in this report, including stream and gravel mining issues, the appeal of the Foret Plan for the Mark Twain national Forest, the ongoing battles to prevent Concentrated animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs) from polluting rural Missouri, advocacy for wilderness, urban streams and river restoration.