Polluting the Mississippi River Basin's Small Streams and
Wetlands 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 pla