Experts warn of sewage, E. coli in Missouri River. Flooding could make quality worse

The Kansas Department of Health and Environment advised residents last week to stay out of the Missouri River due to contamination from raw sewage and E. coli bacteria. Five days later, the river is still dangerous to enter — both due to high water levels and contaminants from upstream.

“KDHE advises residents to stay away from the river at this time. While the high flow conditions continue, do not enter the river,” the department wrote in a news release Thursday.

According to the department, severe flooding in Iowa and Nebraska caused untreated wastewater to be discharged into the river, raising levels of E. coli bacteria and other contaminants.

“Any time we have wet weather, we expect water quality to be degraded,“ said Tom Stiles, the KDHE’s water bureau director. “It’s unusual just to have this much rain come down, and that has overwhelmed some of the systems.”

Here’s what we know about contamination in the Missouri River, and how to stay safe until it subsides.

What’s causing the sewage and bacteria in the Missouri River?

Extreme weather in Nebraska and Iowa has overwhelmed these states’ local water treatment systems in the past week. These severe flood conditions have caused what experts call bypasses in wastewater plants and caused untreated sewage to enter the Missouri River.

“Sometimes there’s too much water passing through a treatment plant to be able to be adequately disinfected, and that creates the bypass situation,” Stiles told The Kansas City Star. Agricultural runoff and other contaminants from the land also get washed into the river after heavy rainfall.

Mike Kruse, the water protection program manager at the Missouri Department of Natural Resources, added that the contaminants have likely been diluted to less hazardous levels by the time they reach Kansas City.

“In most cases the sheer volume of water in the Missouri River, especially by the time it reaches Missouri, is so great that sufficient dilution has occurred,” he said.

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