Protecting the Integrity of Missouri’s Water Resources
Missouri water bodies provide enjoyment for people via fishing, wading, swimming, canoeing, kayaking, rafting, and diving; habitat for wildlife; protection against flooding; and drinking water for much of the population.
 |
|
However, due to a wide variety of causes, including development pressures, agricultural practices, industrial discharges, storm water runoff, old and failing sewage treatment systems, the cumulative effects of multiple sewage plants, combined sewer overflows, mercury pollution, sand and gravel mining, wetlands draining and filling, and other human activities, many of Missouri’s waters do not meet water quality standards. Further, due to budget constraints, water protection and clean-up programs have been reduced in scope or eliminated. Missouri’s failure to enforce even minimal permit conditions have led to a severe degradation of this state’s waters.
The goal of the Ozark Chapter’s Clean Water Campaign is to demonstrate to the Missouri Department of Natural Resources (MDNR) that the citizens of this state want clean water, to educate and involve the public in protecting Missouri’s water quality and to create demand for strong water quality programs at the local, state, and national levels.
The Sierra Club brings considerable expertise and experience to the water quality issue: Ken Midkiff, now an Ozark Chapter volunteer and the chairman of the Conservation Committee, was former director of the national Sierra Club’s Clean Water Campaign; Carla Klein, Ozark Chapter Director, serves on the states Working Group on Sand and Gravel Mining; Terry Spence and Rolf Christen, also Chapter volunteers, have been long engaged in issues pertaining to CAFO’s; two national staff members working with Sierra Club’s Water Sentinels Program are present in Missouri and working cooperatively with the Chapter on water quality issues — Scott Dye and Angel Kruzen; and Sierra Club volunteers throughout the state have become proponents of water bodies and watersheds in their areas or in areas in which canoeing, kayaking, fishing and other water-related activities are popular.
In addition, the Chapter works with other groups throughout Missouri to raise a strong voice for Clean Water — among them: Missouri Coalition for the Environment, Missouri Farmers Union, Missouri Audubon Society, Missouri Rural Crisis Center, Trout Unlimited, BASS, American Fly Fishing
Federation, American Society of Fisheries, American Canoe Association, Conservation Federation of Missouri, Stream Teams and watershed protection organizations (TNTC).
If Clean Water is important to you please support the Sierra Club’s work in Missouri. Send your contribution to Ozark Chapter Sierra Club, 1007 N. College, Suite 3, Columbia, MO 65201. *
* Please make your check payable to” Ozark Chapter Sierra Club”. Contributions and gifts to the Ozark Chapter Sierra Club are not tax deductible; they support our effective citizen-based advocacy and lobbying efforts. This type of gift provides maximum flexibility for the Club.
If you prefer to make a tax deductible gift, please make your contribution payable to “Sierra Club Foundation, Ozark Chapter.” Contributions and gifts to The Sierra Club Foundation are tax-deductible as charitable contributions as they support grants for public education, research and public interest litigation necessary to further the Sierra Club’s conservation goals.
On-line donations:http://missouri.sierraclub.org. Only non-tax deductible donations are available on-line.
For questions contact Melissa Blakley, Development Associate, Melissa.blakley@sierraclub.org, (573) 999-7388.