Upcoming in Kansas City, Mo.
Nutrients in Our Waters, Our Next Water Quality Challenge
Presentation by John Dunn, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
We have had remarkable success in wastewater treatment and reduction of pollution in our Nation’s waterways. We are now finding that our lakes, streams, and rivers still show impacts from excess nitrogen and phosphorus.
In this Big Muddy presentation EPA Environmental Engineer John Dunn will talk about the impacts of nutrients: Where do they come from? How do they get into streams? What are the environmental impacts here and downstream? What are we doing about it?

River Relief boats approach the confluence of the Kaw and Missouri Rivers for the 2012 Big Muddy Clean-up in Kansas City. Photo by Fran Stous.
presentation by John Dunn, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Wednesday, January 8, 2014
6 p.m. Social Hour
7 p.m. Presentation
Click here for flier (pdf)
Presentation is FREE and open to the public!
This Month’s Location:
This month’s presentation will be at Minsky’s Pizza in the City Market – 427 Main St., Kansas City, MO
We have had remarkable success in wastewater treatment and reduction of pollution in our Nation’s waterways. We are now finding that our lakes, streams, and rivers still show impacts from excess nitrogen and phosphorus. This pollution is more subtle than the stories of the old days, before the Clean Water Act, but dealing with these non-point sources is the next step in restoring our waterways to pristine condition. In this Big Muddy presentation EPA Environmental Engineer John Dunn will talk about the impacts of nutrients: Where do they come from? How do they get into streams? What are the environmental impacts here and downstream? What are we doing about it?
We hope to have a good discussion with lots of opportunity for questions.
John Dunn is an Environmental Engineer that has been working in the Water Division at EPA Region 7 for over 25 years.
Downloads
The Big Muddy Speakers Series in Kansas City
is hosted by these wonderful partners!
- Little Blue River Watershed Coalition
- Friends of Lakeside Nature Center
- Missouri River Relief
- Healthy Rivers Partnership
- Friends of Big Muddy
- Big Muddy National Fish & Wildlife Refuge
- Kansas City Digital Video
Thanks to all of our venue hosts for making this possible!
Click here for a list of upcoming presentations»
The Big Muddy Speaker Series is also held monthly in Rocheport and St. Charles.
Resources and Links
- Presentation Flier (pdf)
- U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Website
- Homepage for Mississippi River Gulf of Mexico Watershed Nutrient Task Force
- Graphs showing nutrient flux in Missouri River at Hermann, MO and at Omaha, NE (USGS)
- EPA’s portal for data and policy on nutrient pollution
- “Federal judge orders EPA to determine ‘necessity’ of regulating nutrients entering Mississippi River” – Sept. 23, 2013 article, New Orleans Times-Picayune
- “Nutrient Regulations Likely Coming Soon” – Oct. 10, 2013, Ag Professional
- AUDIO and article – “Scientists detect high levels of nitrogen in Midwest waterways” – Harvest Public Media, August 26, 2013
- “Dead zone pollutant grows despite decades of work. But who’s the culprit?” – July 9, 2012, Environmental Health News.
- USGS study released Oct. 30, 2013 – “Nitrate Levels Continue to Increase in Mississippi River Basin”
- USGS study released 2007 – “Nutrient and Suspended-Sediment Trends in the Missouri River Basin, 1993–2003”
Recordings of Presentations
Kansas City Digital Video has been recording Big Muddy Speaker Series presentations. These are available on their website at this link. Some contain synchronized powerpoint presentations. We will be posting these to the archived presentation pages on bigmuddyspeakers.org.
Thanks Micheal Morgan and crew for putting this important archive online!
The Big Muddy Speaker Series is partially funded by the Columbia Ecological Services Field Office (USFWS) and the Mo. Dept. of Conservation.