Mississippi River Water Quality and the Clean Water Act Progress, Challenges, and Opportunities (2008) / Chapter Skim
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1 Introduction
1 Introduction
Pages 13-20
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From page 13... ...
Ensuring adequate water quality in the Mississippi River clearly is a national concern. Despite the importance of the river and its water quality, however, more effective Mississippi River water quality monitoring and 13
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From page 14... ...
. At the federal level, Clean Water Act implementation is the responsibility of the U.S.
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From page 15... ...
Many of these significant environmental changes to the river predate passage of the Clean Water Act, which was enacted in its present form in 1972. Remedial efforts aimed at improving water quality are often affected by these long-standing changes and thus are not readily addressed within the Clean Water Act framework.
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From page 16... ...
These documents focus on issues of data collection, water quality, and programmatic and management challenges in implementing Clean Water Act regulations along the Mississippi River and will serve as a point of departure for the committee's deliberations. Many concerns regarding Clean Water Act implementation and enforcement along the Mississippi River relate to the adequacy of water quality data, chal lenges involved in establishing system-wide indicators and quality standards, compliance with standards and regulations, and interstate and interagency coor dination and cooperation.
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From page 17... ...
How could water quality data collection activities and programs for the Mississippi River corridor be revised to promote progress toward Clean Water Act objectives? • Identify and discuss the key challenges to monitoring changes to wetlands, backwaters, and other riverine features along the Mississippi River corridor.
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From page 18... ...
Sediments and nutrients, however, are the factors of primary concern because of the magnitude of their mass loadings into the river, their changes over time, and the scale of the associated ecological impacts. Under the Clean Water Act, the EPA and the states have joint responsibility for protecting, maintaining, and restoring water quality.
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From page 19... ...
Concerns regarding the management of nutrients and sediment loadings to the Mississippi River are key topics within this report, but a broad range of contaminants is also considered. Other issues relevant to Mississippi River water quality management that may be important to readers of this report, but were beyond the scope of this study, include in-depth analysis of remediation of legacy contaminants across the river basin; valuation of environmental goods and services of the Mississippi River-floodplain ecosystems; possible amendments to the Clean Water Act; possible reallocations of federal and state resources devoted to water quality monitoring; operational changes of upper Mississippi River dams and navigation pools; environmental justice considerations that may relate to localized water quality conditions along the river; creation of new organizations for watershed and water quality management; efficiency of the existing TMDL process; and further analysis of cultural and historical differences among the 10 states along the Mississippi River corridor.
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From page 20... ...
This report's target audience includes federal and state elected officials, federal and state resource managers and scientists, experts in river and water quality science and policy issues, nongovernmental organizations with interests in Mississippi River and northern Gulf of Mexico water quality, and individual citizens along the river, across the basin, and along the Gulf Coast. Environmental protection and agricultural agencies for states in the Mississippi River basin comprise a special audience for the report because the states have primary responsibility for implementation of the Clean Water Act and coordination with other states.
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