Category: Safe Water

Wetlands are semi-permanently to permanently water-saturated lands that vary uniquely based on local hydrology, climate, geology, and vegetation. They act as natural filters and sponges to cleanse, store, and gradually release water into our streams, rivers, and reservoirs and are as productive as rain forests and coral reefs. Once feared as a source of disease,…

What are unclassified waters and why are they important? More than forty years after passage of the Clean Water Act, Missouri ’s unclassified waters are not even receiving the minimal protections required by the Act.  Missouri ’s creeks and streams are critical parts of our large river systems. As feeder streams for our big rivers, they…

More than 1,000 farmland acres in the Chesterfield, MO area shown below was under up to 15 feet of water in 1993 but today (2nd photo below) a $275 million mall, longest outdoor strip mall in America, has been constructed there, protected by a 500-year flood levee. The project was built utilizing government tax increment financing; intended…

The Missouri Coalition for the Environment (MCE) has been working to preserve the natural value of Missouri’s floodplains for over 40 years. Lawsuits filed by MCE resulted in a consent agreement forcing the Corps of Engineers to regulate navigable waters up primary tributaries to the ordinary high water mark. MCE was critical in the effort…

Water quality is directly connected to the composition of the watershed. In the Kiefer Creek Watershed bacteria and chloride are delivered from the watershed area into the stream by storm water runoff. Because of this connection is it very important to study water quality in terms of watershed composition, non-point source loading, and storm water…

The St. Louis Metropolitan Sewer System transports wastewater and storm water for approximately 1.4 million people in a 535-square-mile service area covering St. Louis city and about 80% of St. Louis County. It includes over 9,600 miles of pipe, making it the fourth largest in the United States, with 7 treatment facilities processing 330 million gallons…