Stronger EPA leadership needed to improve water quality in Mississ...(ippi River devote few resources to monit...)

The Clean Water Act gives most authority for coordinating and overseeing interstate water quality to EPA, the report observes. Still, the dead zone in the northern Gulf of Mexico persists and clearly is not "fishable and swimmable." And currently, there are no water-quality standards for nutrients for most of the Mississippi River.

To diminish nutrient pollution, EPA should exert the federal leadership that the Clean Water Act allows and work with states to develop water-quality standards that protect the Mississippi River and the northern Gulf of Mexico, the report says. The agency also should work with states to develop a federal Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL), or its equivalent, for nutrient pollutants for the river and northern Gulf. Mandated by the Clean Water Act, a TMDL is a numerical limit on the amount of a pollutant that a water body can accept and still meet its water-quality standards.

The states along the Mississippi River corridor need to improve their cooperative activities, the committee also said. In five states, the Upper Mississippi River Basin Association has promoted many cooperative water-quality studies and other initiatives; currently there is no similar organization for the lower-river states, which should strive to create one. EPA also should support better coordination among states, and among its four regional offices along the river corridor, the report says.

In addition, EPA and the U.S. Department of Agriculture should work together more closely to reduce harmful runoff from agriculture. USDA's conservation programs for protecting water quality should target areas that contribute higher levels of nutrient and sediment runoff to the river, the committee said. Growing interest in biofuels -- which may increase crop production and therefore nutrient runoff from use of fertilizers -- make
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