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Our nation's rivers, streams, and small bodies of water -- which have long been protected by the Clean Water Act -- are now in danger because of a series of misguided court decisions. Recent interpretations of the law suggest that many waters historically protected from pollution can now be polluted or destroyed without a permitting process to limit the environmental impact of discharges into the waters. This October 2008 issue paper discusses the particular danger of this change in interpretation in relation to the problem of nutrient pollution in the Mississippi River Basin. Pollution from the Mississippi contributes to the annual formation of an enormous "dead zone" in the Gulf of Mexico, an area where the bottom layer of water is so oxygen-depleted that most sea life cannot survive within it. This paper provides recommendations for reaffirming long-standing protections for our nation's waterways, including the wetlands and streams that play an important role in filtering pollution in the Mississippi River Basin.

OVERVIEW & QUICK REFERENCE
Fact sheet

ISSUE PAPER IN PDF
Adobe Acrobat file
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Executive Summary
Chapter 1: Nutrient Pollution and Its Effects in the Mississippi River Basin
Chapter 2: Headwaters and Wetlands: Their Function and Prevalence in the Mississippi River Basin
Chapter 3: The Clean Water Act: Its History and Legal Scope
Chapter 4: Recommendations for Restoring Protections Throughout the Mississippi Basin
Endnotes

last revised 10/22/2008