Nov. 28--What about the rest of us?

We've known for most of a decade what the Missouri Department of Natural Resources only recently blundered into: Missouri streams, creeks and lakes are often so contaminated with fecal bacteria that even dipping so much as toe into them is risky.

There has been a lot of fallout from the DNR's Keystone Cops coverup this summer to protect tourism and businesses at Lake of the Ozarks at the expense of people who were swimming and skiing there.

Shhhh. Don't tell the people.

Don't tell the people what? What we've been telling DNR year after year after year? Get serious.

Stream teams, students, other volunteers and more recently, county health officials, have been reporting for the better part of a decade that most bodies of water in Southwest Missouri are often so fouled with waste that the readings are literally off the scale much of the time. Even looking at one of these creeks may make you sick, or at the very least, heart broken.

A chastened DNR has awakened to the fact there is a problem in its own backyard and it is belatedly taking action. By one count, it recently issued 100 letters of warning, 60 notices of violation and referred 29 cases to the Missouri attorney general -- all stemming from its Lake of the Ozarks investigation.

Now, how about the rest of us?

"We tried to get their attention, but I don't think anyone really gave a damn," said Wayne Christian, one stream team volunteer who led an effort to bring the problems of Spring River to the public's attention. "We went to great lengths to establish our testing program, but I never got the impression anyone was interested in the results. They would have preferred that we just picked up trash."

Putting our streams, lakes and rivers on impaired lists and drafting long-term management plans may look good in bureaucratic circles, but that dog just doesn't hunt anymore.

We demand the agency take the same aggressive look down here. We're not going away until the mess does.

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