The people of St. Louis deserve access to such high quality water," said Art Spratlin, a regional director for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
The EPA has ordered the Missouri Clean Water Commission to devise a plan to reduce the water's bacteria levels, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported Friday.
The plan must address sewage overflows along 28.6 miles of the river overseen by the Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District, which has yet to settle a 2007 lawsuit filed against it by the EPA, the Post-Dispatch reported.
The sewer district already was planning to spend an estimated $6 billion to improve the system and reduce overflows before Thursday's EPA order, Lance LeComb, a sewer district spokesman said.
"We will continue to spend billions of dollars for many years on the issue of overflows," LeComb told the Post-Dispatch.
Copyright 2009 by United Press International.
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