MAJOR RIVERS OF THE ST. LOUIS REGION & KEY RIVER MANAGEMENT ISSUES

The greater St. Louis region includes the confluences of several major rivers in an area of abundant rainfall. Rivers in the region have diverse characteristics and have been impacted by land use changes and river engineering projects that have degraded river water quality and wildlife habitat, although significant remediation has been realized since the Clean Water Act of 1972. As it flows to the south, the upper Mississippi River is joined by the Illinois River in the northern part of the region. Both rivers have been engineered into a stair step of lakes by a series of locks and dams that extend respectively to Minneapolis and Chicago.

Flow from the north is almost doubled at St. Louis by the addition of the muddy Missouri River. The lower stretches of the Missouri have been greatly modified by an extensive system of wing dams and levees that extend well into the Great Plains. Unlike most regions in the world, the greater St. Louis area will have abundant water resources far into the future. Nevertheless, water rights has already surfaced as a public policy concern complicating changes in Missouri River management practices. US Fish and Wildlife Service scientists have called on the Army Corps of Engineers to alter management policies that have led to habitat loss and decline of species in the Missouri River.

In St. Louis, the middle Mississippi River passes through an industrialized corridor that has been engineered in a manner similar to the lower Missouri River. To this large flow is added the small contribution of the River des Peres, a channelized stream dominated by urban runoff, and the Meramec River, an Ozark stream with diverse biota. Following a successful citizen-based campaign to halt construction of a Corps of Engineers dam on the Meramec River in the 1970s, it remains one of the few un-impounded rivers in the United States.

A Confluence Greenway focused on the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers, a brownfield site redeveloped into a park at the Mississippi & River des Peres, and expansion of an existing Greenway along the Meramec River are key initiatives growing out of a regional tax initiative passed in 2000 to create parks and greenways, enhance recreation and improve water quality.