by Chapter Director Carla Klein, Chapter Water Sentinel Angel Kruzen, and Water Sentinels Program Director Scott Dye
In the last issue, Angel Kruzen introduced herself as the Ozark Chapter’s new Water Sentinel. This month, we’d like to tell you more about the Chapter’s Water Sentinels project, and how we’re working to restore Missouri’s urban watersheds.
Last fall, the Ozark Chapter was one of seven Sierra Club Chapters that were awarded grants under the Club’s new Water Sentinels program. The grants are used to promote volunteer water quality monitoring activities and to pursue state level enforcement of pollution laws. The Chapter’s Water Sentinels project is focused on three urban basins in the Kansas City metropolitan area – Blue and Little Blue Rivers, Brush and Indian Creeks; and three basins in the St. Louis region – Dardenne and Peruque Creeks, and River des Pere (also known as ‘River Despair’).
These watersheds, home to millions of Missourians, are badly degraded by sprawl and development, urban non-point runoff, channelization and concrete diversion, combined sewer overflows (CSOs). Yet despite visually obvious pollution problems and habitat destruction, and considerable agency data indicating impairment, very few urban waterways such as these are included on Missouri’s current list of impaired waters. Often, the problems impacting urban and suburban streams are simply written off by public officials as too large or too complex to solve.
We intend to change that way of thinking. By building strong alliances within metropolitan areas – among environmentalists, schools, churches, civic groups, city planners, and new and existing volunteer water quality monitors – we can begin to reclaim and restore these urban waterways. The first step in the process of restoring our urban rivers and streams will be getting these degraded streams placed on the state’s 303(d) list of impaired waters.
Federal clean water law requires states to produce a list of its ‘impaired’ (polluted) waters every two years. When streams are listed as ‘impaired’ it triggers the Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) process, which requires the writing and implementation of a cleanup plan for the waterway. Working with newly recruited as well as existing volunteer water quality monitors, we’ll conduct biological monitoring and broad-based chemical testing for pollutants including bacteria and nutrients. The coordinated monitoring should fill in any remaining gaps in the data supporting the streams’ placement on the state’s 303(d) list.
We’re very fortunate to be able to coordinate our project’s efforts with Missouri’s nationally recognized Stream Team Program. The state program’s volunteer water quality monitors are among the best trained and best equipped in the country. Many have attained the highest level of training and certification offered by Missouri’s USEPA-certified program.
The new Water Sentinels project continues the Ozark Chapter’s long involvement in Missouri’s impaired waters listing processes. In 2001, the successful settlement of the Chapter’s federal lawsuit over Missouri’s 303(d) list resulted in several important victories for clean water: a more accurate and complete impaired water list (from approximately 40 to 260 stream segments); initial TMDLs being written; improvements to the state’s water quality regulations and listing criteria; greatly increased utilization of volunteer data; and several other important reforms. The settlement was also the catalyst to the subsequent legislative process that resulted in millions in increased funding to the Missouri Department of Natural Resources (MDNR) to comply with the monitoring requirements in the resulting Consent Decree. The USEPA and the state are currently operating under this Consent Decree and several Memorandums of Understanding.
While much has been accomplished, much work remains, especially in our urban and suburban areas. We need your help to reclaim these rivers and streams – especially if you live or work in Missouri’s two largest cities. We have many different levels of volunteer opportunities available to get you involved in this effort – from letter writing campaigns and contacting public officials, to diving feet first into a stream in search of the elusive Corydalus.
Together, we can change the future face of Missouri’s urban environment. The work won’t be easy, and it won’t be quick. But, if we believe we can change the status quo – we will, together. Our children, and our children’s children, will thank us.
To get involved in the chapter’s Water Sentinels project, contact Angel Kruzen at (417) 934-2818, or at pansgarden@hotmail.com, or call the Chapter office at (573) 815-9250.