What is going on with our water?
Kelley Kates
Issue date: 11/16/09 Section: Forum
Just out of curiosity, has anyone else noticed the extensive and numerous sewage spills into our waterways within just the past few months, let alone the past year?
To put a number to it, the Missouri Department of Natural Resources (MDNR) has reported hundreds of millions of gallons of raw sewage spilled into Missouri's waterways in the past year.
It is not very comforting to imagine all of the dangerous bacteria recently spilled into our water systems, even if we are told our drinking water is still OK.
The first major one, I am sure we all heard about over the summer, was the outbreak of E-coli in the Lake of the Ozarks. According to The Kansas City Star, the test results obtained by MDNR were held for almost a month before releasing the dangerous levels of E-coli to the public. Prior testing in 2007 showed abnormally high levels of E-coli present in the lake to be between 3,000 and 5,000 times above the state standard.
Apparently, there are many more cases of the same instance where old sewage lines break after heavy rains, or where animal waste run-off into several area lakes has created E-coli problems.
Within the past couple of years, several recreational state beaches at different lakes have been recommended for closure by state water quality officials because of the same kinds of problems. State beaches such as Watkins Woolen Mill State Historic Site and Park, Mark Twain Lake, Long Branch Lake, Crowder Lake, Pim Lake, Wakonda Lake, Thousand Hills State Park, Louis and Clark and Cuivre River State Park were all closed, according to MDNR's data. Yet the Lake of the Ozarks had the highest total with 13 closed beaches.
Of course, that is only the beginning of the problem. Kansas City has seen its fair share of water pollution, perhaps due to our failing sewer system.
The city receives hefty fines, so it has known for quite some time now about the broken sewer system and the need to replace it, even though it may be costly. I'd like to think the cost of human health, fines and repeated repairs would outweigh the urge to keep a broken system in place.
To put a number to it, the Missouri Department of Natural Resources (MDNR) has reported hundreds of millions of gallons of raw sewage spilled into Missouri's waterways in the past year.
It is not very comforting to imagine all of the dangerous bacteria recently spilled into our water systems, even if we are told our drinking water is still OK.
The first major one, I am sure we all heard about over the summer, was the outbreak of E-coli in the Lake of the Ozarks. According to The Kansas City Star, the test results obtained by MDNR were held for almost a month before releasing the dangerous levels of E-coli to the public. Prior testing in 2007 showed abnormally high levels of E-coli present in the lake to be between 3,000 and 5,000 times above the state standard.
Apparently, there are many more cases of the same instance where old sewage lines break after heavy rains, or where animal waste run-off into several area lakes has created E-coli problems.
Within the past couple of years, several recreational state beaches at different lakes have been recommended for closure by state water quality officials because of the same kinds of problems. State beaches such as Watkins Woolen Mill State Historic Site and Park, Mark Twain Lake, Long Branch Lake, Crowder Lake, Pim Lake, Wakonda Lake, Thousand Hills State Park, Louis and Clark and Cuivre River State Park were all closed, according to MDNR's data. Yet the Lake of the Ozarks had the highest total with 13 closed beaches.
Of course, that is only the beginning of the problem. Kansas City has seen its fair share of water pollution, perhaps due to our failing sewer system.
The city receives hefty fines, so it has known for quite some time now about the broken sewer system and the need to replace it, even though it may be costly. I'd like to think the cost of human health, fines and repeated repairs would outweigh the urge to keep a broken system in place.
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