Water skiing on the Mississippi River

It takes more than 200 pages of dense, legalistic language to detail the intricacies of the federal Clean Water Act. But the bottom line is simple: Federal and state governments must protect lakes, streams and rivers from pollution — even rivers once treated as open sewers.
The law isn’t new; it’s been around since 1972. But, until recently, parts of state government acted like they’d never heard of it.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency sent a reminder last week. In a 10-page letter, it ordered Missouri officials to adopt more stringent standards for the 29-mile stretch of the  Mississippi River that flows through the St. Louis region.
The EPA says the river, despite its dangerous currents, submerged hazards and towboats with strings of barges, must be clean enough for swimming and other recreational activities. That means the Metropolitan Sewer District must do a better job of keeping sewage overflows out of local rivers.

MSD already has rolled out an ambitious sewer upgrade plan. Ratepayers already are seeing the result — higher bills to pay for about $6 billion in improvements over the next several decades.
As things stand now, heavy rainfall triggers the release of sewage-tainted water into area streams and the Mississippi River. Parts of the system designed to handle storm water run-off must be separated from those that handle sewage.
Similar improvements were made by cities across the country in the 1970s and 1980s. Many of them took advantage of federal matching funds that were available at the time. St. Louis declined, in part to avoid spending local funds needed to obtain those funds. Now, decades after the law took effect, the area is paying a steep price.
Those delays were abetted by Missouri’s Clean Water Commission, which has had to be pushed repeatedly to do its job. The commission’s refusal to update standards for thousands of streams and waterways led the Missouri Coalition for the Environment to file a federal lawsuit in 2000.
In 2005, state environmental officials recommended upgrading protections on 195 miles of the Mississippi River, but the commission refused. The EPA intervened in 2008; last week’s ruling applies to the final section of river that the commission had declined to upgrade.
The Mississippi River is an important — and underused — asset for St. Louis and the rest of Missouri. Other river cities have demonstrated how a revived riverfront can be a boon to tourism and recreation.
It’s time for our region to get rolling, too.