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 Governor Jay Nixon and MoDNR Director Mark Templeton announced a Lake of the Ozarks water quality enforcement effort today.
Starting immediately the Missouri Department of Natural Resources will implement a four step policy.
The governor and the director outlined a four point plan at the Pa He Tsi boat ramp Wednesday afternoon that they say will completed by the end of the year.
The first step will be an inspection sweep of over 400 area facilities that are permitted by the Missouri Department of Natural Resources to dump their treated effluent into the lake. The state will enforce a zero tolerance policy and administrative penalities will be issued by the MoDNR. Further enforcement is possible from the state attorney general's office. The sweep is slated to take eight to ten weeks to complete.
The second step is the implementation of the zero tolerance policy, that will eventually lead to administrative action and referral for prosecution.
The third step, which will be implemented at the same time as the inspection sweep, is a comprehensive baseline survey of the entire lake. That comprehensive baseline survey will test the water for contaminants including bacteriological, petroleum based contaminants, and pesticides. That survey is to be submitted to the governor by December 31st. Nixon says this will lead to future long term enforcement efforts.
The final step is the impelementation of the what the governor calls the most rigorous possible standard for new applications for waste water permits in the lake of the ozarks watershed. The MoDNR will apply a new standard when reviewing requests for permits that would allow discharge of waste water or land disturbances that might affect water quality in the lake.
Nixon has given the MoDNR the power to make full use of their authority to deny permit applications or revoke existing permits where necessary. |
