The money could be used to fight invasive species, complete restoration projects, improve water quality and protect against flood damage. Environmental Protection Agency and provide hundreds of millions in federal funding to groups throughout the 10 states including Iowa along the river. Like the Great Lakes initiative, it would operate within the U.S. It’s based on the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, which launched in 2010. Betty McCollum, a Democrat from the Twin Cities. The Mississippi River Restoration and Resilience Initiative was introduced last June by U.S. And despite efforts to curb pollution running off land and into the river, the dead zone where the Mississippi empties into the Gulf of Mexico persists.Īdvocates for the river are hoping that a proposed federal funding program, modeled after an effort to clean up the Great Lakes, could change that trajectory. Invasive species are working their way farther up the river and into its tributaries. And they community is far from alone in feeling the effects of environmental degradation and other problems along the Mississippi River.įlooding is happening with more frequency and lasting longer, changing flood plain habitats.
Today, so much sediment from upstream is flowing in that the community hardly has access to the lake it once enjoyed.
