The Mississippi River, rising from Lake Istasca in northern Minnesota to flow 2,340 miles to the Gulf of Mexico, “is heading toward an ecological precipice,” says the Minneapolis Star Tribune in a special report. In five years, 400 square miles of forests, marshes and grasslands in the upper Mississippi have been converted to agriculture and urban development, “endangering the cleanest stretch of America’s greatest river with farm chemicals, depleted groundwater and urban runoff.”
“At this rate, conservationists warn, the Upper Mississippi — a recreational jewel and the source of drinking water for millions of Minnesotans — could become just another polluted river,” says the Star Tribune. The EPA launched a special project this summer to predict how changing land use on the upper river will affect water quality.
The Mississippi provides drinking water for at least 15 million people and habitat for 25 percent of fish species in North America, says the newspaper. Conservation groups and state agencies have identified parcels of land that are especially important for water quality and are trying to buy the land or buy permanent easements against development.