Make the Mississippi River a Critical Conservation Area
Congressional Support from Wisconsin and Minnesota Are a Positive Step Toward
Improving Mississippi River Basin Water Quality
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: May 19, 2014
CONTACT:
Kimberlee Wright, Executive Director, [email protected]
Stacy Harbaugh, Communications and Outreach Coordinator,
[email protected], (608) 251-5047 x1
MADISON, WI – Last week, signs of Congressional support from Wisconsin and Minnesota for designating the
Mississippi River as a region that needs federal conservation funding were a positive step toward saving the
river from too many decades of pollution.
On Wednesday, May 14, Wisconsin Congressman Ron Kind and Minnesota Congressman Tim Walz issued a
letter to U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack asking for the entire Mississippi River to be designated as a
Critical Conservation Area under the federal farm bill's new Regional Conservation Partnership Program.
Conservation programs not only protect the habitats of threatened and migrating wildlife, but federal support
for effective wetland management can help to control floods, balance irrigation demands and prevent erosion.
All of these efforts are essential for improving the health of the water and soil on which our agricultural
economy, our regional food systems and our families depend.
“Wisconsin and Minnesota are at the top of this complex river system,” said Kim Wright, “and our agricultural
economies can only be as healthy and sustainable as the rivers and wetlands in our watersheds. We must take
steps to ensure that our agricultural runoff doesn’t continue to contribute to Mississippi River pollution
downstream. Better monitoring and enforcement from a stronger Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources,
combined with federal funding for critical conservation partnerships along the basin, are essential to saving this
valuable natural resource.”
If designated as a critical conservation area, the program would provide important funding for effective
conservation measures that must be put in place before the water quantity and quality problems along the
entire Mississippi River basin get worse. The most notable problem is the growing dead zone in the Gulf of
Mexico where agricultural runoff and industrial nitrogen and phosphorus pollutants are the cause of hypoxia.
“While many other areas in the country will be asking the USDA for Regional Conservation Partnership Program
designations in only eight Critical Conservation Areas, the size and regional impact of cooperative programs
along the Mississippi River would have the greatest impact across the ten, Mississippi River border states,” said
Wright.
Midwest Environmental Advocates partners with eighteen other organizations in the Mississippi River
Collaborative, a network of nonprofits that work to improve state and federal policies that restore lands, reduce
pollution, and strengthen advocacy for restoration in the Mississippi River basin. Since 1992, the McKnight
Foundation has supported multi-state collaboration to provide legal and technical comments on pollution
permits, encourage participation in state farm programs, and coordinate with national experts to encourage
state governments to adopt numeric criteria standards for water quality that would provide consistency in
controlling water pollution. Designating the Mississippi River as a Critical Conservation Area would be a
significant step toward achieving the Mississippi River Collaborative’s goals to protect this important river
system.
Midwest Environmental Advocates uses the power of the law to support communities fighting for
environmental accountability. Learn more about the Midwest Environmental Advocates on the web at
midwestadvocates.org, like MEA on Facebook or follow @MidwestAdvocate on Twitter.
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