by Kathleen Logan Smith
Director of Environmental Policy Coalition For The Environment
www.moenviron.org
Speak Loudly For The Voiceless
More than 60,000 miles of Missouri streams, wetlands, some lakes, and ponds are threatened. We’ve been waiting.
We’ve waited for 40 years while many of our waters have been ruined by urban and agricultural pollutants. We’ve waited 40 years while the frogs, turtles, snails, and fish have disappeared, diminished, and in some crucial cases become severely deformed. We’ve waited 40 years while our fishing and wading streams have become unsafe and unhealthy.
For 40 years, more than 150,000 miles of Missouri’s natural waterways have been exempted from the protections that every other state in the nation gives its streams, the very same protections promised in the Clean Water Act of 1973. And now, after a 40 year wait, the Missouri Dept. of Natural Resources is proposing a rule that only covers about half of our exempted waters. In other words, the Dept. hopes that Missourians will be satisfied if 67,868 miles of unclassified streams, as well as wetlands, many lakes and ponds remain unprotected by the scientific water quality standards established by the Clean Water Act.
If you are as tired of waiting as we are and refuse to be satisfied with another half measure and another decade of delay, then speak now before Sept. 17th. You’ll find links to everything you need to make your voice heard for Missouri waters at www.moenviron.org.