Group says EPA must pressure states to curb pollution in the Mississippi River

WASHINGTON - A new report released Thursday by a coalition of environmental and legal groups calls for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to establish safe and viable water pollution limits for phosphorus and nitrogen along the Mississippi River.

Pollution from agriculture, industry and local municipalities has spurred algae growth, killed marine life and contaminated water in the ten states that border the Mississippi River.

The EPA has called on states to address the matter and in 2011 recommended eight policies to help curb pollution from nitrogen and phosphorus.

But the federal agency has offered no enforceable regulations, deadlines for improvements or funding to implement their proposals, according to the Mississippi River Collaborative, a group of organizations dedicated to protecting “America’s Great River.”

And because the recommendations were voluntary, no state has implemented more than two of the eight proposals.

“Decades of Delay,” a new report released Thursday by the collaborative, argues that because “states are either unwilling or unable to solve” the problem, the EPA must set actual pollution limits and provide the mechanism for enforcing them.

“It is time for (the) EPA to step up and provide leadership and assistance to establish safe and viable pollution limits and provide the regulatory framework and enforcement to back them up,” reads the report. “The protection of human health and the environment in the Mississippi River states demands it.”

The report studied the ten states that border the Mississippi River – Arkansas, Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Tennessee and Wisconsin.

It found that no state has numeric limits for nitrogen and only Minnesota and Wisconsin have limits for phosphorous. Other findings show that:

- Less than 2 percent of rivers and streams in the ten states are tested for phosphorus and less than one percent for nitrates. Only 3.7 percent are tested for dissolved oxygen, an indicator of nutrient pollution.

- Lakes and reservoirs in the ten states fared better, but their testing rates were still low. Only 26.3 percent were tested for phosphorous, 4 percent for dissolved oxygen and less than two percent for nitrogen.

- No Mississippi River border states use a permitting system to limit nitrogen discharges from sewage plants and other industrial sources.

- Nearly 62 percent of permits that regulate phosphorus discharges have neither limits nor requirements for monitoring.

- Few water body clean-up plans – none in six Mississippi border states and just 5 percent in the four remaining states – include provisions addressing pollution from direct discharges and runoff.

- Among clean-up plans that included efforts to reduce pollution from runoff, 92 percent lacked follow-ups to see if the reductions were reached.

This story was originally published November 17, 2016 at 1:28 PM with the headline "Group says EPA must pressure states to curb pollution in the Mississippi River."