Great Rivers Environmental Law Center

Category: Water Quality Program


Great Rivers Environmental Law Center and Missouri Confluence Waterkeeper Send Notices of Intent to Sue Under the Clean Water Act to Two Missouri Sewage Plants for Visible Water Pollution

Water treatment facilities in rural Missouri and the state’s largest metro area both accused of violating bedrock federal environmental law.

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Protection Won for Missouri Youth

With the passage of the GET LEAD OUT OF DRINKING WATER ACT on July 1, 2022, Madeline’s work bore tremendous fruit. The bill requires any public school, private school, or provider of an early childhood education program that receives state funding to test for lead in their institution’s drinking water fixtures and to install filters to remediate those sources that are compromised.   

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St. Louis on the Air Features President Bruce Morrison

St. Louis on the Air host Sarah Fenske sat down with Bruce Morrison, President of Great Rivers Environmental Law Center, and Steve Taylor, press secretary for the Global Justice Ecology Project, to discuss new federal funding designated to remediate Superfund sites in Missouri. The conversation focused on the factors the EPA considers for site selection, the impact of site remediation on Missouri residents, and the importance of environmental justice and citizen advocacy.

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Combatting the Threat of PFAS

Great Rivers, Sierra Club, and Prairie Rivers Network threaten a citizen suit against Sugar Camp Energy and American Consolidated Natural Resources.

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An Update From Our Sustainable Lands Program

We are fighting to close illegal roads in Ozark National Scenic Riverways and opposing a proposed mine along the Eleven Point River.

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Protecting the Ozark National Scenic Riverways

Great Rivers has raised legal concerns about a National Park Service plan to manage illegally created roads and trails within the Ozark National Scenic Riverways.

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Great Rivers Doubles Down in Fight Against Maryland Heights Floodplain Development

The proposed construction site sits adjacent to Creve Coeur Lake Park, abutting wetlands considered by the National Audubon Society to be an “urban oasis” for many migrating waders, waterfowl, and shorebirds, and the bird watchers who come to see them.

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Great Rivers Joins Petition Opposing Weakening of Endangered Species Act Guidelines

A monarch butterfly lands on Echinacea

The proposed changes would allow the U.S. Fish and Wildlife to more easily exclude from protection vital habitat endangered species depend on.

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Great Rivers Expands Capacity to Protect Region’s Most Vulnerable Children

New Staff Attorney Madeline Middlebrooks will fight dangerous lead contamination in local schools’ drinking water.

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Settlement Reached: A Big Victory for the Big River

The settlement puts an end to unlawful discharge of harmful waste and allocates funds to help clean up the river.

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Great Rivers Files Comments Challenging Legality of Cuts to NEPA

The changes would threaten local natural resources and exacerbate climate instability.

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Great Rivers Files Objections to Reckless Timber Harvest of Shawnee National Forest

As CO2 levels climb daily to new record levels, the last thing we need to do is to clear cut our forests.

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Missouri Wetlands: Our Unsung Resource

Wetlands in Missouri are one of our state’s highly beneficial and yet often unappreciated natural resources.

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Great Rivers Environmental Law Center proudly welcomes third year law student Madeline Middlebrooks

Madeline Middlebrooks

Madeline will focus her work on local environmental justice and water contamination issues.

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Success! Subsidized Development of 2,409 acres Abutting Wetlands and Creve Coeur Park CANCELLED

When environmental concerns about the development seemed to fall on deaf ears, Great Rivers attorneys Bob Menees and Sarah Rubenstein raised important issues about the legality of the proposed plan.

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Great Rivers Files Comments Opposing Maryland Heights’ Myopic Plan to Develop Floodplain at Taxpayers’ Expense

The City’s proposal for over $85,000,000 in tax incentives would jeopardize downstream citizens, vulnerable wildlife, and the funding of vital community services.

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Great Rivers Works to Help Fight Fracking in Illinois; Court Orders Records to be Made Public

Fracking is harmful to air and water quality. Great Rivers’ intern helped fight fracking in Illinois.

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Water Quality Program Sees Victory! Great Rivers Confronts a Chronic Polluter of the Meramec River

The unlawful discharges had been made continuously for the past five years.

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Great Rivers Urges Ameren to Prioritize Citizens’ Health and Remove Coal Ash instead of Capping It

Great Rivers Urges Ameren to Prioritize Human Health

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Supreme Court Declines to Adopt Great Rivers’ Argument Urging Court to Follow Statute Allowing Citizens Right to Sue over Unconstitutional Laws

Missouri Supreme Court declined to adopt Great Rivers argument of new standing doctrine

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