Stream Teams, Doyle Childers & Signage

Missouri Department of Natural Resources (MDNR) director, Doyle Childers, was in Jasper County, Friday, January 5, 2007, for what he called his 75th public forum. Frank Martinez of the Carthage Stream Team and Dwayne Miller of Neosho asked Childers for more MDNR suppport of their Stream Team initiatives. They were referring to dangerous contamination levels of bacteria in local streams. Childers responded by saying that MDNR does not have enough resources to do the monitoring and put up signs. He encouraged local groups to erect signs warning potential swimmers of the water contamination. Carthage Press

The Joplin Globe, in an article dated December 9, 2006, In our view: Monitoring Water Quality, warned that One of these days, Missouri’s Department of Natural Resources may be posting signs every 100 yards or so warning swimmers to stay out of Spring River because of human waste. Two water samples recently collected by a Carthage Senior High School volunteers found human fecal material near the dam below Spring River and very high levels of animal waste downstream. Such findings are not all that unusual in streams across the region. What better argument than preserving the quality of Southwest Missouri’s water supplies can be made to legislative consideration for additional funding so DNR and counties can to do more testing? Certainly the state needs to be proactive in investigating the various sources of such pollution and take corrective action. Finding the money may not be easy. But legislators should look long and hard to find additional dollars for such a program when they convene next month.