what is being done to preserve the mississippi

Mississippi River Restoration and Resilience Initiative (MRRRI)

I grew up along the Mississippi River in South St. Paul, Minnesota. The river was and continues to be a working river that is vital to transporting commerce. Just for decades, no one cared for the river, and it became a source of pollution that was slowly killing the river ecosystem.

I accept addicted memories as a kid of my father taking me to Hastings to watch with wonder at the raising and lowering of the locks to watch boats and barges brand their fashion through the dam and downwards river.

Today, because people who cared stepped upwardly to protect it, the Mississippi is non only a working river merely a place for families to enjoy.

The river plays a vital role in all of our lives. Information technology is woven into our culture, showing up in America's literature, poetry, and music. It is a shipping corridor for goods and resources. It is the center of a $500-billion-per-year natural resource and recreation-based economic system employing 1.5 1000000 workers. It's surprising to many that the River is also a source of drinking h2o for xx million Americans. Information technology is deeply tied to Native American civilization – its name comes from the Ojibwe for "big river" and information technology is a sacred place of origin for many Dakota people. 72 miles of the river are fifty-fifty part of our National Park System, inside the Mississippi National River and Recreation Surface area.

From the northernmost headwaters in Lake Itasca to the Mississippi Delta, the wellness of this nifty river continues to be at run a risk.

Flooding and other farthermost weather condition events, pollution, and runoff threaten the the river and surrounding communities. The health of the river is disquisitional not simply for the sake of the natural dazzler, wildlife, and climate change-fighting capabilities of these resources, only for our economy and so our communities tin thrive besides.

That's why I'm proud to innovate legislation that volition establish the Mississippi River Resilience and Restoration Initiative (MRRRI). This initiative will coordinate efforts on conservation and environmental restoration along the unabridged river corridor and open up up grant opportunities for state and local governments, tribes, and nonprofit organizations. The MRRRI Deed authorizes new federal investments to:

• Better community resilience to climate change, and reduce flood gamble by restoring floodplains, riverine wetlands, delta and coastal wetlands, and backwaters;
• Meliorate drinking water quality in the Mississippi River and Gulf of Mexico by reducing polluted runoff;
• Protect and restore wildlife habitat and throughout the River corridor;
• Preclude the spread of aquatic invasive species in the River arrangement; and
• Make dedicated investments in those communities that have born the highest costs of environmental deposition.

MRRRI volition follow the successful model of the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (GLRI) to ensure coordinated and sustained federal investments to restore the Mississippi River and protect it as a healthy working river.

We all learned as children how to spell the "MISS-ISSI-PPI" – instilling in us the significance of this river. With MRRRI, nosotros accept the chance to ensure this resource remains a good for you and thriving resources for generations to come.

Betty McCollum
Fellow member of Congress

Legislation

The Mississippi River Resiliency and Restoration Act directs the Environmental Protection Agency to work closely with other federal agencies, states, tribal nations, and local governments besides every bit non-governmental organizations to develop and coordinate the initiative, with these goals:

• Protect our drinking water, wildlife, and river-dependent industries past reducing runoff pollution
• Reduce overflowing and storm risks and increase community resilience through ecologically sound direction
• Protect and restore wildlife habitat, in part by preventing the spread of aquatic invasive species

MRRRI would provide grants for restoration projects in river states, cities, townships, and tribal nations while prioritizing the most at-gamble communities.

Find the full text of the bill hither.

View a fact sheet hither  with more data.

Financial Year 2021 Interior-Surroundings Appropriations language can exist constitute here.

Support and Testimonials

Original cosponsors of theMRRRI Act: Rep. Bennie Thompson (MS-02), Rep. Cori Bush (MO-01), Rep. Steve Cohen (TN-09), and Rep. John Yarmuth (KY-03). Observe the most updated list of cosponsors here.

This legislation is supported by a wide variety of groups and organizations up and down the Mississippi River corridor, including:

American Farmland Trust
American Federation of Government Employees – Local 704
American Rivers
American Sportfishing Association
Arkansas Wild fauna Federation
Audubon Minnesota
Association of Minnesota Counties
Bird Conservation Network
Center for Biological Diverseness
Center for Sustainable Engagement and Development (CSED)
CURE (Clean Upwards the River Environment)
Clean River Partners (formerly Cannon River Watershed Partnership)
Clean Water Action Minnesota
Clean Wisconsin
Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana
Conservation Corps Minnesota and Iowa
Conservation Federation of Missouri
Conservation Minnesota
DownRiver Alliance
Freshwater
Friends for Our Riverfront
Friends of Pool ii
Friends of the Falls
Friends of the Mississippi River
Friends of the Upper Mississippi
Great Lakes Fishery Commission
Swell River Passage Conservancy
Green Lands Blue Waters
Gulf Declension Center for Law & Policy
Healthy Gulf
Illinois Ecology Quango
Illinois Stewardship Alliance
Iowa Environmental Council
Izaak Walton League of America
Izaak Walton League of America MN Partition
Kentucky Waterways Alliance
Lake Pepin Legacy Brotherhood
League of Conservation Voters
League of Minnesota Cities
LWV Upper Mississippi River Region ILO
Lower Mississippi River Foundation
Minnesota Clan of Watershed Districts
Minnesota Ecology Partnership
Minnesota Forestry Clan
Minnesota Interfaith Ability & Low-cal
Minnesota Well Owners System (MNWOO)
Mississippi Park Connection
Mississippi River Network
Mississippi River Trust
Mississippi Valley Traveler
Mississippi Wild fauna Federation
Missouri Coalition for the Surround
Monarch Joint Venture
National Clan of Counties
National Audubon Order
National Caucus of Environmental Legislators
National Eagle Center
National Slap-up Rivers Research and Education Center
National League of Cities
National Marine Manufacturers Association
National Mississippi River Museum & Aquarium
National Parks Conservation Clan
National Wildlife Federation
Newport Citizens Organization
Openlands
Parks & Trails Council of Minnesota
Prairie Isle Indian Community
Prairie Rivers Network
Quapaw Canoe Company
Sierra Gild (National)
Sierra Guild Illinois Chapter
Sierra Club Missouri Chapter
Sierra Guild North Star Affiliate (Minnesota)
St. Paul Yacht Club
Stop Carp Coalition
Tennessee Environmental Council
Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership
The H2o Collaborative of Greater New Orleans
The Wetlands Initiative
Wild Ones Native Landscaping St. Croix Oak Savanna Chapter
Wild Rivers Conservancy of the St. Croix & Namekagon
Wilderness Inquiry

[List of endorsing organizations updated as of September 29, 2021]

"The Mississippi River and Lake Pepin are at the core of the 'GOOD' in Goodhue Canton, Minnesota. River transportation and commerce were the foundation of our prosperity, but the natural magnificence of the river valley is what has sustained united states. Along with Agriculture, Industry, and History; Recreation is the fourth pillar in our County Seal. Clean water that is swimmable, fishable, and drinkable is absolutely vital for maintaining our river and its tributaries. I salute and encourage Congresswoman McCollum's thou conservation plan for America's Greatest River with the agreement that all natural things can be ruined past neglect. It is no secret that clean and accessible water volition play a major role in a sustainable and prosperous future. The time to address that future is at present!"

 -Goodhue Canton (MN) Commissioner Paul Drotos

"The Mississippi River is an ecology treasure, an economical corridor, and a place of recreation and enjoyment for all Minnesotans and Americans, in general.  We have a duty to preserve this vital resources and asset for future generations just must team up this passion with resources and hard work. As such, AMC appreciates and supports Congresswoman McCollum's efforts to dedicate federal funds to preservation, water quality, flood prevention, and aquatic invasive species control  efforts. Congresswoman McCollum'south proposals allows local governments and communities to decide how best to reply to these shared priorities and needs and Minnesota counties fully support her efforts."

-Ramsey County (MN) Commissioner Mary Jo McGuire (Second Vice President, Association of Minnesota Counties).

Additional Resources

• Explore a curated list of photos and cultural resources from the Library of Congress hither.
• Learn most the Mississippi River from the National Park Service.
• Share the message: digital toolkit for cosponsors or advocates.
• Detect an op-ed authored by Rep. McCollum and Friends of the Mississippi River'south Whitney Clark here.

"At present it was only sunset, and we crossed the Mississippi, slowly, over a long span. I looked out the window of the Pullman at the neat muddy river flowing down toward the centre of the Due south, and I began to think what that river, the old Mississippi, had meant to Negroes in the past – how to exist sold downwardly the river was the fate that could overtake a slave in times of bondage. Then I remembered reading how Abraham Lincoln had fabricated a trip down the Mississippi on a raft to New Orleans, and how he had seen slavery at its worst, and had decided within himself that it should exist removed from American life…"
-Langston Hughes, excerpted from "The Negro Speaks of Rivers"

The Great River is the heartbeat of our nation – an of import cultural keystone with which nosotros all take a connectedness. It reminds us who we are and what we value. Let's protect it.

pinoboseem.blogspot.com

Source: https://mccollum.house.gov/MRRRI

Share this post