The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has ordered the Missouri Clean Water Commission to adopt more protective water quality standards for a 28.6-mile segment of the Mississippi River that flows past St. Louis.

Regional federal environmental regulators say the water must be clean enough to support recreational uses.

The Missouri Department of Natural Resources will have to come up with a plan to reduce levels of bacteria, which largely result from untreated wastewater seeping into the river.

“The people of St. Louis deserve access to such high quality water,” said Art Spratlin, the EPA’s regional director for water, wetlands and pesticides.

The plan will have to address overflows of the sewer maintained by the Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District. Spratlin declined to elaborate how new water quality rules might affect MSD, citing an ongoing lawsuit filed against the sewer district by the EPA and the Department of Natural Resources in 2007 regarding overflows.

MSD is planning to spend about $6 billion improving its system, which will include reducing sewer overflows.

The EPA’s new order does not change those plans, said Lance LeComb, an MSD spokesman.

“We will continue to spend billions of dollars for many years on the issue of overflows,” he said.

Under the Clean Water Act, states are required to protect bodies of water for recreational uses. Exceptions can be made if they meet criteria — including stream depth — that show them unsuitable for swimming.

After the department conducted a study on how the 28.6-mile segment was being used, the state clean water commission in 2005 decided to exempt three local waterways including more than 193 miles of the Mississippi River.

In 2008, the EPA disagreed, ordering Missouri to adopt tougher water quality standards for 165 miles of the river that flows from just upstream of St. Louis to its confluence with the Ohio River near Cairo, Ill.

And on Thursday, federal environmental regulators addressed the 28.6-mile segment, which flows from North Riverfront Park to the confluence with the Meramec River.

In addition to failing to prove the segment can’t support swimming, the state also did not prove how its standards protect users from harmful levels of bacteria, EPA officials said.

Kathleen Logan Smith, director of the Missouri Coalition for the Environment, said the EPA’s order was a step toward protecting the Mississippi River.

Still, the city needs to expedite the upgrade to its sewer system and St. Louis residents need to do their part to control pollution runoff.

“I don’t think most people understand the role they play when it comes to reducing runoff,” she said.

Under the EPA’s order, the department will have about 90 days to propose a set of revised water quality standards for the river segment.

This article was written by Kim McGuire for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch

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Tags: EPA, Missouri Department of Natural Resources, St. Louis Metropolitan Sewer District

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