by Rebecca Townsend
Missouri News Horizon
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — Efforts to build habitat for the endangered pallid sturgeon also add to the nutrient load of the Missouri River, feeding the hypoxic area known as the dead-zone in the Gulf of Mexico.
In examining the challenge of having to comply with the potentially conflicting mandates of the Endangered Species Act and the Clean Water Act, officials from four federal agencies came to an agreement, finalized Tuesday, to monitor all Army Corps of Engineers-constructed shallow water habitats to demonstrate the costs and benefits of the projects on both water quality and fish populations. Using scientific guidance from a recent National Academy of Sciences report on sediment management in the river, agency officials hope to establish a science-based blueprint from which employees can bolster endangered species populations without negative effects on water quality.
“It’s clear to everybody…we need to know more about what kind of sediment is going in the river on these construction projects, and then what the consequences are for both fish health and water health,” said Karl Brooks, region seven administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency.
