Before Settlement

Settlement & Industry

Channelization

Flooding

Human Impact

Current Management

Bibliography

Human Impact

Pollution ~ Sedimentation

"Unfortunately, our rivers carry the waste into the bay
like veins into a heart"
(Patrick Noonan qtd. in Countryside Winter 96).

Urbanization has taken its toll on the aquatic life in the Mississippi River. The increase in pollution and sedimentation has threatened the habitat of many important inhabitants of the surrounding land and water. As the water quality declines, the ability for fish to live and breed declines.

There are three main threats to the aquatic life in the river according to the McKnight Foundation:

1. Declining Ecological Integrity: Bad water quality, impoundment by dams, and public use has limited the ability for the water to support life. Backwaters are filling with sediment and areas once full of life become shallow, mud pools (39).
2. Native Species Disappearance: when habitats become scarce, native species have trouble surviving..... "species that successfully endured the advance and retreat of glaciers, drought, and floods are now imperiled by just a few generations of development of the Upper Mississippi" (39).
3. Exotic Invaders: foreign species that can live under new conditions are harming native plants and wildlife (40).

Toxins in the Upper Mississippi pose a threat to not only the surrounding habitat for wildlife and fisheries, but it can lead to numerous human health problems. The water is treated before humans consume it, but the tests can be quite costly for chemicals and labor.


In a study entitled, "Organic Contamination of the Mississippi River from Municipal and Industrial Wastewater,"some of the pollution compunds found were:

Contaminant Compounds and sources

1. Dissolved organic carbon -regional scale natural sources
2. Fecal coliform bacteria -from human and livestosk fecal waste from
unchlorinated sewage
3. Methylene blue active substance -sewage water discharge
4. Absorbable organic halogen -pesticides
5. Fecal storols -biochemical compound in human/livestock waste
6. Caffeine -food products and medications
7. Volatile organic compunds -industrial and fuel sources (3)

People can often be advised to steer clear from consuming fish from the rivers because of the bioaccumulation in the animals. The toxin polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) was banned in 1979 still remains locked in sediments and fish. Exposure to this toxin has been linked to damage done to human blood, liver, immune functions, and embryonic developments in fetuses (McKnight 46).

Toxin Statistics

Industrial (McKnight 46)
Toxin chemicals and heavy metals emitted by industries in the region: 93,000 tons
Number of firms contributing to emissions: 1,000
Average number of spills per year: 12

Nutrients and Pathogens (50)
Tons of waste that animals produce yearly: 100 million
Percentage of sewers unseparated into stormwater and sewage:
         Moline 10%
         Davenport 40%
Number of reported sewage spills in the area (1994): 74
In 1991, Ranked states according to amount of toxic discharges into surface water. Ilinois was number three. Furthermore, Illinois was ranked highest nationally for highest dischargers of publicly owned sewage treatment works (League 11).