UPDATE: The Senate Agriculture, Food Production, and Outdoor Resources Committee will vote soon on this bill. Either email all the 9 members listed below with your own personal email or call their offices, or use the 2-minute form to send a message to committee members. Thank you!

Members of the Senate Agriculture, Food Production, and Outdoor Resources Committee will be voting on SB981. Contact these senators and tell them to vote no on SB981.
​[email protected], 573-751-4843
[email protected], 573-751-1415
[email protected], 573-751-2076
[email protected], 573-751-5713
[email protected], 573-751-2173
[email protected], 573-751-8793
[email protected], 573-751-9762
[email protected], 573-751-6607
[email protected], 573-751-3158

Let the Missouri State Legislature know you want clean water. 
Help stop damaging legislation proposed in 2024 - HB 1691 and SB 981 : Simply fill in your contact information, and an email will be automatically generated to be sent to the bill sponsors, House and Senate leaders, and your elected state senator and representative.  You can also edit the email to include your own personal comments. After your email is sent, you will have the option to call your legislators or record a 30 second video to send to your elected officials.  All videos will be reviewed for quality control prior to being sent to elected officials.  Scroll down to learn more about the negative impacts of these bills. Help share about this issue with this flier. 

These bills would legalize pollution of many of Missouri waterways and groundwater systems, create great uncertainty in jurisdictional boundaries, and lead to increased costs for the state to determine if waterways are within the bounds of state jurisdiction.
With the current, extended drought prevalent throughout Missouri, many of our state’s rivers and streams are very low.  Missourians need to have ample clean water available for drinking supply and other purposes.  The proposed new definitions of waters of the state could cause damaging pollution to our already depleted water resources in the state. 

The proposed legislation, HB 1691 and SB 981 would have the following negative impacts:

• Create more uncertainty regarding if a water falls under the jurisdiction of the Missouri Clean Water law. The current definition of Waters of the State is straightforward.  The proposed definition change creates much more uncertainty because it requires a hydrologic or geologic study/determination based on amount of water flow or connection to surface water.
• This uncertainty will result in a substantial inability for the state to regulate many currently regulated sources of water pollution and a delayed and expensive decision-making process to determine if new sources of pollution are within the jurisdiction of the Missouri Clean Water law.
• Remove groundwater from protection as waters of the state unless it can be proven that the groundwater has a connection to surface water.  Determining if groundwater has a connection to surface water requires a geological study.  This change would cost the state time and money.
• Missouri’s 2023 Census of Public Water Systems, shows that over 2 million people drink groundwater from public systems.  Only 1.3% of these people drink water from systems that receive groundwater “under direct influence” from surface water.  It would appear that the remaining 98.7%, or 2,111,255 people in Missouri receiving public water, would have sources of water that could be legally polluted under this legislation.  This does not include the thousands of people who drink from private wells, which would be at risk as well.
• Remove intermittent and ephemeral streams from being protected as waters of the state.  These tributaries are the beginning of larger streams and rivers, and downstream water quality is directly influenced by upstream input of pollution.  Allowing pollution of the headwaters of rivers is allowing for pollution of downstream waters, and therefore, allowing for pollution of waters of the state, which are intended to be a shared resource for the beneficial use of people.
• This is a severely negative change to anyone who drinks, cooks, or bathes with water from within Missouri, swims or recreates in our Missouri rivers, lakes, and streams, fishes for sport or consumption in Missouri, owns a home on one of Missouri’s lakes, and especially has the potential to negatively impact quality of groundwater for people served by private wells.
• Remove wetlands from protection as waters of the state, unless a connection to surface water can be determined.  This determination costs time and money.
• Both intermittent and ephemeral streams serve as habitat for many aquatic species in Missouri, some that are species of conservation concern, for which government funded programs are working to conserve.  The proposed change undermines current efforts of Missouri agencies and their mission to protect public natural resources.
• This change directly undermines taxpayer funded programs to conserve water in the state, in particular the state Soil and Water sales tax, that directs millions of dollars each year for the purpose of reducing pollution of our state waterways.  This tax was passed by an overwhelming majority by vote of Missourians, being approved by 80% of the vote in 2016, passing in every Missouri county. Missourians have spoken clearly through their vote of this tax – Missourians want clean water and are willing to pay for it. ​

This legislation allows for pollution of upstream tributaries that do not have permanent flow – the current flows of most streams throughout the state are below normal and therefore many streams that normally are flowing throughout the year may now be dry and this legislation would make it legal to pollute these riverways.  The legislation also legalizes the pollution of groundwater – we simply can’t afford to allow for pollution of water resources, especially when the state is in an extended drought.  We should be protecting our water supply more, not less.