For those who fish the middle Gasconade

[Brian Jones]

http://www.ky3.com/news/local/sewage-spilling-into-gasconade-river-draws-concerns-from-fishermen/21048998_32521018

WeeksHollow.pdf

[rFisherk]

A new EPA plan would expand their coverage and fix this.

Clean-Water-Rule-Missouri-Fact-Sheet.pdf

[Terrierman]

Lagoons are inexpensive to build and operate but they don't do very well at providing a high level of treatment. Like nearly every problem out there, this one will take money to solve and that translates to enough people thinking it's worth it. User rates on the customers of that sewer district would probably need to go up somewhere around $20 per month (or more) to construct and operate a treatment plant that would meet the new ammonia limits that are coming down the pike. Thing is, as I type this, an exemption for lagoons having to meet those limits is in preparation. Due to what? Cost. People just are not willing to pay the price for clean water. Usually.

[Markhat]

I'd be interested to know if any stream teams have done water quality tests above and below this site. Chemistry and inverts? The water quality above this site is usually excellent. BTW some friends of mine reported this 2 yrs ago and it went nowhere. Maybe now that it was on KY3 something will happen

[Al Agnew]

Just remember stuff like this whenever people like the locals around Current River say they are better stewards of the river than those nasty feds and other outsiders.

[msamatt]

Al, that type of thinking really ticks me off as well. While I'm not a historian I really believe that we're still dealing with the frictions between local versus state versus federal government and agrarian versus urban/commercial (read Jefferson versus Hamilton) which have been part of our civil life since the very start of our nation. Or, I at least like to think that way since it helps me keep a broader perspective whenever I'm trying to come to grips with yet another example of how crumbling infrastructure has long-term negative consequences for our natural world. I don't know exactly where the Weeks Hollow water treatment lagoon is but I'm pretty sure that its in the Waynesville Metro area. I have an email in to Mark Van Patten with the MDC as not only is he the Stream Team Coordinator but the Roubidoux is probably his "home water" etc. I know that it takes $$ to upgrade infrastructure and I'm pretty sure there isn't a single politician in the entire country, save maybe a local alderman, who is elected to office by promising to raise takes to upgrade water treatment or sewage infrastructure. Even when there is $$ to fix a problem like this, and if I've read correctly then the MO DNR is helping pay for some of the upgrades to the lagoon, it still takes time to complete that work all the while the waster water continues to run into and out of the facility. I hate bloated and inefficient government at all levels as much as the next guy but clean water shouldn't be such a hard sell. In this case it appears that there is a fairly sizeable group of local citizens putting pressure on their local government to do something to fix this problem. Our entire nation is faced with crumbling infrastructure or, as I suspect in this case infrastructure which is woefully inadequate for the size of the community, and how to pay for it. We, as a nation really need to figure out how to fix these problems.

[rFisherk]

The Clean Water Act - the part that already exists - provides for financial commitment to help local governments construct and rehab sewage collection/treatment infrastructure through the Clean Water State Revolving Fund (SRF). Someone let them know about it.

[Gavin]

Found Weeks Hollow on a topi map. Looks like its a couple miles up from the confluence with the Big Piney just below Mossy Spring. Kinda explains all the moss on the bottom.