Missouri looks to update water quality standards

Missouri’s Clean Water Commission is considering recommendations that the state make sweeping updates to its water quality standards, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Members of the commission will vote in November on the recommendations.

The recommendations were set forth by the Missouri Department of Natural Resources and look to update limits on pollutants in waterways and require some wastewater treatment facilities to treat discharge. If approved, the standards will take effect in early 2014.

The U.S. EPA asked Missouri to update its water quality standards more than a decade ago to comply with the federal Clean Water Act. After multiple attempts by the EPA to force the state, Missouri’s Department of Natural Resources proposed new standards.