EPA Says Revised Standards Needed For Mississippi River Segments in Missouri

摘要

St. Louis-The Environmental Protection Agency said Dec. 12 that new or revised water quality standards are needed to protect the Mississippi River in Missouri. In a letter to the Missouri Department of Natural Resources, Benjamin H. Grumbles, EPA's assistant administrator for water, said EPA has determined that a 1.3-mile segment of the river upstream from St. Louis and a 164.7-mile segment downstream from St. Louis must be designated for whole-body-contact recreation. Currently, those portions of the river have been designated by DNR for secondary-contact recreation, a designation that implies recreational use of the river without immersion, and imposes a less stringent threshold for E. coli bacteria.