Impaired Waters

Missouri's Monitoring and Assessment Program

Under Section 106(e)(1) of the Clean Water Act, EPA provides monitoring support to eligible state monitoring programs. EPA's elements of a state water monitoring and assessment program guidance recommends 10 basic elements of a state water monitoring and assessment program. These elements, in addition to Missouri's proposed monitoring strategy, are described in the department's A Proposal for a Water Quality Monitoring Strategy for Missouri report. 

Missouri's 303(d) Streams and Lakes

Water quality standards protect the beneficial uses of water, including whole body contact (such as swimming), maintaining fish and other aquatic life, and providing drinking water for people, livestock and wildlife. Section 303(d) of the federal Clean Water Act requires that each state identify waters not meeting water quality standards and for which adequate water pollution controls have not been required. The 303(d) list helps state and federal agencies keep track of impaired waters not addressed by normal water pollution control programs. Links to Missouri's current and previous 303(d) lists are available in the table in the Reports and Data tab above.

Missouri Water Quality 305(b) Report

Under Section 303(d), 305(b) and 314 of the Clean Water Act, each state is required to report the status of their state waters to EPA on April 1 every even-numbered year. Missouri's 305(b) integrated report provides an overview of the status of Missouri's waters. The report summarizes water quality issues and assesses the degree of progress Missouri has made toward meeting federal Clean Water Act goals. The report also includes the list of impaired waters included in the 303(d) list and maps showing what waters in the state are impaired, what pollutants affect them and the sources of those pollutants. The department must provide EPA with written methodology describing its approach for considering and evaluating existing and readily available data and information used to develop its 303(d) list of impaired waterbodies. The water quality assessments made in this report help direct future water quality management efforts to those waters most in need of restoration or protection. Links to Missouri's 305(b) report submittals are available in the table in the Reports and Data tab above.

National Water Quality Inventory Report

EPA combines the information provided by each state in their 305(b) integrated report into one National Water Quality Inventory Report to Congress. The EPA report and other information reported by states is available online at the electronic reporting database, Assessment, Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) Tracking and Implementation System (ATTAINS). This is the main way EPA reports the general status of water quality conditions to Congress and the public.