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Missouri agency withheld report of E. coli reaching unsafe levels in Lake of the Ozarks
By KAREN DILLON
The Kansas City Star

OSAGE BEACH, Mo. | State officials sat for four weeks on a report that showed E. coli was above safe levels in the Lake of the Ozarks around Memorial Day.

Heavy rains in May washed the hazardous bacteria into the lake, which has since returned to safe levels. But for a month the Missouri Department of Natural Resources refused to show the report to residents who demanded to see it.

DNR officials said this week that they withheld the report because they were concerned about the impact it would have on tourism and the public.

“We wanted to make sure we understood the problem,” said Susanne Medley, DNR spokeswoman. “Business and tourism was a consideration. We didn’t want to panic the people.”

But some critics are calling the DNR’s decision to not immediately release the report a cover-up.

“We all thought something must be wrong,” said Donna Swall, executive director of a group that did the sampling May 26 at the lake for the DNR.

She said she begged state officials to release the report.

A national clean-water expert and author said the report should have been released about May 28 when the danger was imminent, not June 26, when it was finally released with lower June samples.

“All the reasons DNR gave for not releasing the report have to do with the economy,” said Ken Midkiff, who writes and advocates for water quality in Missouri. “The Department of Natural Resources is supposed to protect water quality and the environment.”

The DNR notified the public when it shut down two beaches in Lake of the Ozarks State Park, where it is required to monitor the water weekly. But it did not alert the public about many other areas that tested high in the rest of the lake.

The samples in May were collected after a heavy rain.

Studies have shown that when it rains, bodies of water can become dangerous because sewers and septic tanks overflow into them. Animal fecal matter also washes into the water.

The state standard for E. coli is 126 colonies per 100 milliliters of water. More than half of the 60 samples taken May 26 exceeded that standard, state records show. At least two samples were 19 times above the standard.

E. coli is found in the intestines of animals and can survive several days and even up to a week outside a body.

Contaminated water can infect anyone who has a laceration, scratch or open wound. If it is swallowed, a person can experience flu symptoms or even die.

While people may get sick from the water, it is not often known how many because that kind of disease is expensive and difficult to track, health officials said.

Many Missouri lakes are not monitored for E. coli. But Lake of the Ozarks is in an unusual situation. As the result of a lawsuit, Ameren Corp. agreed in 2007 to provide $15,000 a year for five years to monitor for E. coli as part of a state settlement over a dam failure.

The Lake of the Ozarks Watershed Alliance, manned by volunteers with oversight by DNR employees, collects samples six times a year during the swimming season.

For the last two years, the DNR has released the monitoring report promptly, as soon as a laboratory has analyzed the samples. The alliance puts the report on its Web site and includes a color map of where the samples were taken.

But in May, after the samples were collected and the laboratory analyzed them, the DNR did not release the report.

Swall, alliance executive director, said she pleaded with DNR officials to release the report.

“I told them we need to educate the public,” she said.

On June 12, two top DNR officials met with alliance members, including Swall. They explained that the new DNR administration appointed by Gov. Jay Nixon had been unaware of the monitoring program, and when shown the results, they were surprised.

“The Lake of the Ozarks represents a lot of dollars to the state of Missouri,” Swall said the officials told her. “At the same time, they were very confident that human health was not at risk.”

Still, they didn’t release the report. Finally, Swall told DNR officials so many people were clamoring about the report not being released that the report was becoming secondary.

“This is no longer going to be about the government report,” Swall said she told them. “It’s going to be about the government cover-up.”

When the report was released, Swall said she was shocked at the number of high readings. The number of high samples in May were higher than the total number over the last two years.

Earl Pabst, a deputy DNR director, said this week that he blamed himself for what happened. He said he had failed to inform the new administration about the monitoring program so that after the samples had been analyzed, officials panicked.

“I will take responsibility for this,” Pabst said. “I failed to brief the new administration. They had questions, and it frankly took a little while to answer those. It took some internal education.”

Midkiff said the DNR appeared to have violated the state’s Sunshine Law by not releasing the records when asked because they were public documents.

Missouri officials are not required to notify the public when there are human waste spills, but a bill in Congress would change that.

Table Rock still seems nice and clean...........No wait, it't horrible dirty, smells and fowls your outdrive. All the LOTO boaters should continue boating there, not come to TRL.