Water

Artificial floating wetlands naturally filter water from contaminants and excess nutrients. There are about a dozen in the state, and the Missouri Department of Conservation wants to add more.

Water scarcity could threaten the Midwest as climate change puts pressure on water systems. With that scarcity, legal fights over water could become more common.

The district north of Alton in Fosterburg township will soon break ground on the water treatment plant and more than 50 miles of pipe to connect to six other communities and water districts.

Legislation granted initial approval Wednesday in the Missouri House prohibits exporting water to other states without a permit.

Critics say the Missouri legislation debated this week could jeopardize the state’s groundwater and 136,000 miles of streams.

The statewide effort to clean up drinking water was prompted by a 2022 Missouri law, and more than $27 million has been set aside to fix the problems.

The water department had just $2 million left in reserves before the rate hikes kicked in. They are expected to raise a combined $33 million.

About a quarter of the United States’s irrigated cropland sits on top of the Ogallala Aquifer in the Great Plains. But water levels are dropping, and states are taking different approaches to monitoring how much groundwater irrigators are pumping out.

Cahokia Heights residents are being exposed to bacteria and parasites possibly spreading because of chronic sewage backups and flooding in their community, preliminary findings from an ongoing health study showed.

Changing rainfall amounts, soil conditions and river levels all complicate the situation, which kicked off with a stretch of dryness this spring.