Bill to study Upper Mississippi River Basin clears U.S. House
The U.S. House of Representatives approved by voice vote on July 10 a bill authorizing a study of nutrient and sediment pollution in the Upper Mississippi River Basin. Authored by Rep. Ron Kind of Wisconsin, the bill is labeled the Upper Mississippi River Basin Protection Act. It now goes to the Senate for consideration.
The legislation, H.R. 961, authorizes more than $6.9 million in federal spending and directs the U.S. Geological Survey to work with other government agencies to set up a monitoring system in the Upper Mississippi River watershed. The bill defines the Upper Mississippi as the watershed portion of the Upper Mississippi River and Illinois River basins, from Cairo, Illinois, to the headwaters of the Mississippi River, in the States of Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Iowa, and Missouri.
Kind said the river basin is the source of drinking water for approximately 22 million people, and barges transport millions of tons of cargo along the systems 1,300 miles of navigable waterways. The basin also provides more than $7.8 billion in recreation and tourism income to the region, according to Kind.
The system would monitor runoff from farmlands, monitor sediments in the system, and analyze ways to reduce both sediment and nutrient runoff. The government would create a website to make data collected through the study available to the public.
Kind says that the increased soil erosion causes fertilizers to run off, causing high nitrogen levels in the watershed, at a $300 million cost to farmers. Sediment buildup costs the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers more than $100 million in annual dredging.