Mississippi River Water Quality and the Clean Water Act Progress, Challenges, and Opportunities (2008) / Chapter Skim
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The river supports numerous economic and recreational activities including boating, commercial and recreational fishing, tourism, hiking, and hunting. Mississippi River water quality is of paramount importance for the sustainability of the many uses of the river and the ecosystems dependent on it.
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, but nonpoint pollution, which originates from diffuse sources such as urban areas and agricultural fields, has proven more difficult to manage. Despite improvements since passage of the Clean Water Act, the Mississippi River today experiences a variety of water quality problems.
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The committee discussed this topic and chose to conduct its investigations and present its findings and recommendations entirely within the framework of the existing Clean Water Act. FINDINGS Mississippi River Water Quality Problems Numerous human activities across the Mississippi River basin affect the water quality of the mainstem Mississippi River and the northern Gulf of Mexico.
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Moreover, there is very limited coordination among the Mississippi River states on water quality monitoring activities. The Clean Water Act is relatively clear in delineating
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The lack of a centralized Mississippi River water quality information system and data gathering program hinders effective implementation of the Clean Water Act and acts as a barrier to maintaining and improving water quality along the Mississippi River and into the northern Gulf of Mexico. Effectiveness of the Clean Water Act The Clean Water Act (CWA)
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Such changes, however, are likely to have limited effects on mainstem and northern Gulf of Mexico water quality because only approximately 10 percent of Mississippi River nitrogen loading is from point sources. For waterbodies that remain impaired after the application of technology-based and water quality-based controls of point source discharges, the Clean Water Act requires application of water quality standards and Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDLs)
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Programs and policies designed to achieve improvements in water quality for the Mississippi River and the northern Gulf of Mexico are affected by the following factors: 1. Resolution of many Mississippi River water quality issues is constrained by pre-CWA structural alterations to the river -- for example, locks, dams, and levees, and the losses of wetlands -- that the Clean Water Act cannot undo; 2.
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Nevertheless, the Clean Water Act provides a legal framework that, if comprehensively implemented and rigorously enforced, can effectively address many aspects of intrastate and interstate water pollution, although the emphasis to date has been predominantly on the former. Nonpoint Source Pollution and Agriculture Since agriculture contributes the major portion of nutrients and sediments delivered to the Mississippi River, reductions in pollutant loadings, especially nutrients, from the agricultural sector are crucial to improving Mississippi River water quality.
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also could play an important role in this collaboration by sharing its considerable expertise and data related to water quality monitoring. It is imperative that these USDA conservation programs be aggressively targeted to help achieve water quality improvements in the Mississippi River and its tributaries.
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The lower Mississippi River states should strive to create a cooperative mechanism, similar in organization to the UMRBA, in order to promote better interstate collaboration on lower Mississippi River water quality issues. EPA Leadership Several federal agencies maintain programs related to water quality monitoring across the Mississippi River watershed and into the northern Gulf of Mexico.
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The EPA should act aggressively to ensure improved cooperation regarding water quality standards, nonpoint source management and control, and related programs under the Clean Water Act. This more aggressive role for EPA is crucial to maintaining and improving Mississippi River and northern Gulf of Mexico water quality and should occur at several levels.
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There are currently neither federal nor state water quality standards for nutrients for most of the Mississippi River, although standards for nutrients are under development in several states. Numerical federal water quality criteria and state water quality standards for nutrients are essential precursors to reducing nutrient inputs to the river and achieving water quality objectives along the Mississippi River and in the northern Gulf of Mexico.
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