Mississippi River Water Quality Issues
The Mississippi River is the second longest river in the United States, with a length of 2,340 miles (3,766 km) from its source in Lake Itasca (Minnesota) to its mouth about 100 miles south of New Orleans (Louisiana) into the Gulf of Mexico. The river is divided into the upper Mississippi, from its source south to the Ohio River, and the lower Mississippi, from the Ohio to the Gulf. The Mississippi River has the third largest drainage basin ("catchment") in the world, exceeded in size only by the watersheds of the Amazon River and Congo River. It drains 41% of the 48 contiguous states of the United States. The basin covers more than 1,245,000 square miles (3,225,000 km²), including all or parts of 31 states and two Canadian provinces.
Sediments and nutrients are the two most pervasive system-wide pollutants in the Mississippi River and have significantly degraded the ecological health of the river and its watershed. Sources of these pollutants include agriculture, industry, transportation systems, urban runoff, sprawling development, and municipal sewage treatment plants. Ecosystem impacts of these pollutants include changes in plankton composition and production, nuisance algal blooms, the suitability of habitat for fisheries, and the suitability of waters for human use and consumption. It is not surprising, therefore, that mainstem states have listed hundreds of miles of the Mississippi River and its tributaries as impaired or threatened under CWA sections 305(b) and 303(d).
In 2005, Kentucky Waterways Alliance was invited by the McKnight Foundation to join in a grant proposal from 12 organizations to create a new collaborative effort in the Mississippi River watershed.
The Mississippi River Basin Collaborative focuses on water quality protection projects in a coordinated fashion within the Mississippi River Basin. The purpose of this project is to 1) strategically focus state and regional water quailty protection efforts in the Mississippi River Basin; and 2) to increase the organizational, legal, and technical capacity of these 12 groups to meet existing challenges and effectively implement new initiatives of the Collaborative.
The Collaborative's long-term goal is to improve water quality in the Mississippi River Basin and its tributaries. The short-term goals are to create and empower a Mississippi River Basin Collaborative of state-wide advocacy organizations by 1) providing participants with legal and technical support; 2) fostering cooperation with regional and national groups; and 3) improving coordination on key goals and strategies.
