As Missourians splash in the state's abundant waters to relieve the sweltering heat of summer, few realize that our tax money is being spent to keep streams polluted, not to keep them clean and safe.

Newly reconstructed CSO on the Mississippi River in St. LouisThe Missouri Department of Natural Resources (MDNR) is on a multi-year spending spree to conduct studies aimed at exempting streams from clean water protections. The MDNR has spent nearly $300,000 this year on studies used to exempt streams from important clean water protections—and it's poised to spend still more this summer and fall. This is the third year MDNR has either contracted for the studies that downgrade stream protections—called Use Attainability Analyses (UAAs)--or done them using state employees, at an overall undisclosed cost.