Water

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.

After higher water rates took effect in St. Louis in July, calculate your increase — and how much more you'll pay in 2024.

The Department of Energy says it will evaluate alternative ideas to decontaminate the radioactive site and groundwater.

Alderwoman Anne Schweitzer, 1st Ward, says the city’s Water Division has responded to 180 water main breaks since October.

The proposed 40% increase, spread out over 2½ years, would be the first water rate hike in St. Louis in more than a decade. City officials say without it, the department will be in a “fiscal crisis” starting July 1.

A growing legal movement to grant natural entities like rivers and forests legal rights is gaining traction in the U.S., and environmentalists are now setting their sights on the Mississippi River.

Aldermen also discussed a bill to prohibit the open carry of firearms, which has encountered several challenges this week.