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The latest on the Key Bridge collapse, New York puts forth legislation to get clean energy projects on the grid and Wisconsin and other states join a federal summer food program to help feed kids across the country.

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Republicans float conspiracy theories on the collapse of Baltimore's Key Bridge, South Carolina's congressional elections will use a map ruled unconstitutional, and the Senate schedules an impeachment trial for Homeland Secretary Mayorkas.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

Pressure On EPA Over Missouri Waters

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Wednesday, August 11, 2010   

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. - A Missouri group is taking the federal government to court over water safety and quality in the Show-Me State. The Missouri Coalition for the Environment (MCE) is suing the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), claiming it has failed to enforce federal water quality standards for almost 40 years on more than 80 percent of the state's waters.

MCE attorney Caroline Ishida says the suit alleges that a large percentage of Missouri's waters have not been properly protected for such activities as swimming and fishing, which puts people and wildlife at risk.

"People can and are swimming or fishing, and fish and other critters are living in waters that are not clean, and there's no way to verify that they're clean. In addition, they're not being tested or monitored to see what's in them."

Ishida says E. coli bacteria contamination is responsible for more than 30 Missouri beach closings this year, most of which are in waters that are classified as protected by the state.

"Even the waters that are supposed to be protected under the law right now are experiencing some issues."

Missouri has more miles of rivers and streams than any other state. Ten years ago, says Ishida, the EPA instructed the state to add 160,000 miles of streams to the waters it protects, but very little has changed since then. An EPA spokesperson says although the agency has been working with the state and MCE to address the issues raised in the lawsuit, no progress has been made in recent months.



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