About
the organizer
Angel Kruzen
213 E. 3rd St.
Mountain View, MO 65548
(417) 934-2818 (also fax)
pansgarden@hotmail.com
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A River Runs Through It, and It's Polluted
By Ken Midkiff, Sierra Club Clean Water
Campaign Director
Scott Dye, Water Sentinels program director, was looking over the
draft Missouri 303(d) list, perusing the streams that the Missouri
Department of Natural Resources agency was proposing to list as
"impaired," when one set of numbers jumped off of the
page and demanded action.
The Water Sentinels program in Missouri had selected six urban streams
to monitor - which involved collecting samples to ascertain what
nasties had gotten into the waters. One of those streams was the
River Des Peres in St. Louis - known by the locals as the River
Despair.
River Des Peres is one of those urban streams that have been subjected
to much abuse. Much of its headwaters lies literally underneath
the city of St. Louis, flowing through tubes which the Metropolitan
Sewer District uses to transport raw sewage to its various treatment
plants. Then, it emerges to the light of day into a deep and wide
concrete trench channeling wastes on to the Mississippi River. A
large sewage pipe - five feet in diameter - runs right down the
middle of the concrete trench, sometimes emerging for several hundred
yards. There are gaping holes in the sewage line, and it is possible
to look down these holes, and view toilet paper, condoms, and human
excrement flowing by. At times, this sewage spews out of the holes
-- venomous springs oozing filth.
Akin to urban streams throughout the country, there are also massive
conduits leading to the River Des Peres that are euphemistically
entitled "Combined Sewer Overflows." This is a nice way
of saying that when it rains, stormwater is mixed with raw sewage
and all of this dumps into the River Des Peres.
So much crud enters the stream that Scott Dye and Angel Kruzen (Missouri
Water Sentinels coordinator) noted that sampling by the Water Resources
Division of the U.S. Geological Survey had documented average fecal
coliform counts of more than 78,000 bacterial colonies per 100 milliliters
of water. The limit for safe contact by humans is 200 bacterial
colonies.
But, the USGS had sampled last during the period from 1997-2000.
There was no data for 2001, and no sampling had occurred this year.
Enter Bob Lunsford, Sierra Club member in the St. Louis area. Bob,
accompanied by a crew from NBC Channel 4, took samples of the waters
in River Des Peres and observing strict chain of custody procedures
transported three samples to an EPA-certified laboratory, just a
few miles away.
The lab incubated the samples, then did the counts. Amazingly, the
water quality had gotten worse. Fecal coliform levels were at 1.1
million bacterial colonies - 5,000 times the human contact standard.
Even more amazing, the stream was open and accessible to the public
- Channel 4 videotaped children playing in the filthy waters. There
were parks, soccer fields and baseball diamonds along the stinking
stream.
A letter was sent to the Missouri Department of Health, asking that
the stream be posted with signs warning residents of the hazards
presented by contacting the waters. The Health Department refused
to do this, claiming lack of "specific authority." However,
they did state that a dialogue would be opened with St. Louis' Metropolitan
Sewer District. Now, that's decisive action!!
So, the Sierra Club Ozark Chapter's Water Sentinels held a press
conference on the concrete banks of the River Des Peres - - and
posted signs up and down the stream warning citizens to avoid contact
with the waters. Providing comic relief, the Metropolitan Sewer
District scrambled their employees and feverishly posted their brand
spanking new signs up and down the river, trying to stay ahead of
us.
Twenty-four Sierra Club members were present for the event; and
every major media outlet in St Louis - radio, TV, and newspaper
- carried the story.
The Metropolitan Sewer District has now announced a long range plan
to stop dumping raw sewage in the River Des Peres - and the Missouri
Department of Natural Resources moving to place the troubled waters
on the Impaired Waterbodies list.
At some point in the future, the River Despair will once again become
the River Des Peres.
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