And now:Ish <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: Manure, silt taint Big Sioux River http://www.argusleader.com/news/Sundayarticle1.shtml By KEVIN WOSTER 1999 Argus Leader published: 7/18/99 Wesley Hansen worries that his tribal heritage is being lost in the brown, murky waters of the Big Sioux River. The Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe once swam in the river and used plants growing in the streambed for medicinal purposes. Not anymore. "It has reached the point where we have to tell our people that you can't swim in the river and use it in traditional ways," says Hansen, natural resources official for the Flandreau tribe. "That's a big loss to us. Because we've always been around rivers. It's innate to our culture." In scientific terms, the Big Sioux River is actually cleaner than it has been in decades. Stricter environmental rules and improved farming practices have reduced the levels of pesticides and other pollutants in the water. But it is still polluted by manure -- primarily from livestock operations -- and silt, an Argus Leader study found. The newspaper's examination of Big Sioux water quality recorded fecal coliform -- a bacteria found in feces, and occasionally associated with life-threatening bacteria and parasites -- at levels that violate state standards for swimming. The Argus Leader worked with biochemistry labs at South Dakota State University and in Sioux Falls to test five sites along 200 miles of shoreline, from the Big Sioux's relatively clear headwaters near Summit to its chocolate-colored lower reaches near Vermillion. The worst sample, taken east of Vermillion, showed fecal coliform levels 40 times higher than the state swimming standard. And a sample taken from the river just below Sioux Falls was more than 12 times over the limit. Three of the samples were even higher than the more- lenient standards set for fishing and canoeing, activities in which participants are not immersed in the water. Fecal coliform counts by themselves don't mean the water is unsafe for swimming, state and federal experts say. But they do indicate the presence of animal waste in the water at unacceptable levels. And, given that Sioux Falls is the only South Dakota city that taps Big Sioux water for municipal use, the potential for dangerous bacteria such as E. coli or parasites like the potentially deadly cryptosporidium is worrisome. Yet, on a hot summer day, the muddy, meandering stream pulls people to its shores. Last week Ryenn Keller, 15, her brother, Dane, 14, and their 16-year-old friend, Gordon Ofstad, all of Brandon, played in the river below Dell Rapids -- sliding down the face of the dam into the cool, murky water. Ofstad enjoys swimming in the river -- even though Big Sioux water often gives him a rash. "I swim in other lakes and things and it doesn't happen. But most of the time, I get sick when I swim here," he says, standing on a rock outcrop 8 feet above the water. "It would be great if they'd clean it up." State and federal environmental officials say the river already is much cleaner and safer than it was in the 1970s, thanks to clean-water laws and improved farming practices. Ammonia levels are far below what they were then, when untreated sewage from towns and effluent from industry -- particularly blood-tainted discharges from the John Morrell & Co. plant in Sioux Falls -- fouled whole stretches of the river, leaving it devoid of fish life save a few bullheads and carp.<<END EXCERPT Reprinted under the Fair Use http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html doctrine of international copyright law. &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& Tsonkwadiyonrat (We are ONE Spirit) Unenh onhwa' Awayaton http://www.tdi.net/ishgooda/ UPDATES: CAMP JUSTICE http://shell.webbernet.net/~ishgooda/oglala/ &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
