Water Quality

Congresswoman Cori Bush, St. Louis Mayor Tishaura Jones and EPA Administrator Michael S. Regan, begin their walking tour of the decade old St. Louis Water Treatment Plant and Highlight Water Infrastructure, in St. Louis on Wednesday, May 5, 2021. The group spoke about the needs for water infrastructure investment and President Biden’s American Jobs Plan which includes $111 billion in water infrastructure investments in local communities across the country. Photo by Bill Greenblatt/UPI

St. Louis And EPA Leaders Push For Federal Funding To Update City’s Water System

Chad Davis

St. Louis and EPA officials say the city’s water treatment system needs to be updated to continue to provide safe drinking water and withstand climate change. Leaders say they’ve identified more than $400 million worth of upgrades, including the removal of lead service lines that deliver water.

Water runs off a central Illinois farm into the East Branch Embarras River through a tile drainage pipe.

Health, Science & Environment

It’s Been 6 Years Since Illinois Set Out To Improve Water Quality. So Far, Farm Runoff Is Worse

Dana Cronin

Agriculture is among the largest contributors to the Gulf of Mexico’s dead zone. Farmers upriver are trying to change their agricultural practices to prevent further damage, but so far are having little luck.

Health, Science & Environment

How A Conservation Project Has Saved Missouri's Hellbenders For Another Generation

Emily Woodbury

Missouri’s population of hellbenders is in trouble. These aquatic salamanders have seen a 70% population decline in the state over the past four decades. Scientists now fear local extinction. We discuss a local effort to bring the hellbender back from the brink.

The city of Quincy did not violate any state or federal laws when it changed its water treatment processes in the months prior to the Legionnaires' outbreak. “It really points out this gap in our regulatory structure that we can have these major changes at the water treatment facility, and not require any additional monitoring or communication with the community,” said William Rhoads, a civil engineer who led the study at Virginia Tech.

Health, Science & Environment

Quincy Made Major Changes To Water Treatment Prior to Legionnaires’ Outbreak

Shahla Farzan

Public records obtained by researchers at Virginia Tech show the city of Quincy changed its water treatment processes in the months leading up to the Legionnaires’ disease outbreak, which may have allowed Legionella bacteria to multiply throughout the water system.

Missouri S&T students Dibbya Barua and Justin Adler look at a water sample taken from Schuman Park Lake in Rolla, Missouri on July 26, 2019.

Health, Science & Environment

Missouri S&T Students Design A Pocket-Size Filter For People With Contaminated Water

Eli Chen

Students at the Missouri University of Science and Technology in Rolla are building a portable water filter that can help people who lack access to clean…

Dave Gullic, who works with the DNR's water quality monitoring section, nets a fish in Jefferson City's Binder Lake. The department samples fish tissues for mercury, as part of a monitoring process required by the EPA.

Health, Science & Environment

Missouri Has More Than 350 Blighted Lakes And Rivers — Some Might Be In Your Backyard

Shahla Farzan

The Missouri Department of Natural Resources has identified a new batch of lakes and streams that do not meet water quality standards.The state agency…

Shrimper Thomas Olander inspects one of the nets on his boat. Olander says the dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico makes shrimping tougher. 10/16/19

Health, Science & Environment

Midwestern Farm Runoff Creates Headache For Louisiana Shrimpers

It’s only midmorning, but shrimper Thomas Olander is already calling it quits for the day in a small bayou in St. Mary Parish, on the central Louisiana…

The Missouri River in St. Charles County in September 2019.

Health, Science & Environment

Missouri Farmers Try To Reduce Runoff, But Cleaning Gulf Dead Zone May Take Decades

Eli Chen

When corn and soybean farmer Kenny Reichard stopped plowing some of his fields in northern Missouri in 1982, other farmers told him that it was a terrible…

Workers for the Environmental Protection Agency collect a water sample. SIUE will investigate contaminants in regional water with a grant from the agency.

Health, Science & Environment

SIUE Students To Study Water Quality With EPA Grant

Eric Schmid

BELLEVILLE — Southern Illinois University Edwardsville will research water quality in the region with a $100,000 educational grant from the Environmental…

Missouri Confluence Waterkeeper director Rachel Bartels holds up a jar containing a sample of the Mississippi River near the Arch in Sept. 2019.

Health, Science & Environment

A Water Quality Activist Tests Missouri Waters For Tiny Pieces Of Plastic

Eli Chen

Missouri waters are polluted with microplastics, small pieces of plastic smaller than a pencil eraser. Microplastics can come from large pieces of plastic…