Mississippi River

Voluntary initiatives by the U.S. EPA and 10 states bordering the Mississippi over the past 20 years have largely failed to rein in harmful nitrogen and phosphorus pollution by cities, farms and industry, according to a scathing report issued today (11/17) by an environmental and legal group focused on protecting the Mississippi River watershed.

"Though the EPA has consistently and emphatically urged states to take measures to combat nitrogen and phosphorus pollution, its encouragement has come without enforceable regulations, specific deadlines or funding for implementation," the report by the Mississippi River Collaborative says. "Not surprisingly, the problem persists, especially in the Mississippi River, despite a variety of Clean Water Act tools and viable regulatory options available to states."

The analysis of nutrient pollution of lakes, rivers and streams in the Mississippi River watershed – entitled "Decades of Delay" – says the 10 states bordering the country's longest river have failed to establish any numeric limits for nitrogen discharges and only two states have set numeric limits for phosphorus pollution.

Alcoa's Davenport Works wants to increase the amount of pollutants it can discharge into the Mississippi River by 24 percent to accommodate higher quantities of oil/grease, chromium, zinc, cyanide and other suspended solids generated by expansion of the Riverdale plant to serve the automotive aluminum market.

The company is seeking modification of its National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit issued by the Iowa Department of Natural Resources (IDNR). The permit revisions, if approved, would allow the plant to discharge a combined average of 548 pounds of pollutants each day into the river. That's an average of 106 pounds per day more than the plant's current permitted discharge.

Based on the plant's 312 production days each year, the change would permit the plant to dispose of an additional 33,000 pounds of those pollutants into the river annually.

The amount of partially treated sewage dumped into the Mississippi River by Davenport's Sewage Treatment Plant last month totaled more than 136 million gallons.

The so-called "bypassed" sewage received only primary – not secondary – treatment because flows to the plant on Concord Street were beyond its capacity as storm water runoff infiltrated sewer lines after heavy rains.

As the sewage flows backed up in lines to the treatment plant, Bettendorf pumped more than 29 million gallons of sewage and storm water into the river after the heavy rains in late June and early July.

Despite $2 million in storm sewer interceptor work, high water and heavy rains are again forcing Bettendorf to dump raw sewage into the Mississippi River.