Public Notice

Missouri Clean Water Commission
Public Hearing on Variance Request
 Blue Springs Missouri

The City of Blue Springs has applied for a variance from 10CSR20-7.031 Table A water quality standard for dissolved oxygen and requesting alternate dissolved oxygen standards be established for Sni-A-Bar Creek in Jackson County, Missouri.

Department staff reviewed a “reference stream study” submitted with the application looking at existing dissolved oxygen levels in several area streams and recommending alternate stream standards for the variance term while changes to the dissolved oxygen standards are being considered in the rulemaking process.  Staff is recommending that alternate water quality standards of 3.0 mg/l daily minimum and 4.4 mg/l daily mean be established for dissolved oxygen on Sni-A-Bar Creek (WBID 0399 from the proposed discharge site to a point five stream miles downstream) for a ten-year period.

The Staff Recommendation was accepted and the Commission voted to direct the staff to public notice their intention to approve the variance.  As the variance involves the establishment of alternate stream standards for dissolved oxygen in Sni-A-Bar Creek, the Commission will be conducting a public hearing on the proposed alternate stream standards at the March 12, 2008 meeting in St. Louis, Missouri.

The hearing will be held as a part of the Commission’s regular March 12, 2008 meeting. That meeting will begin at 9 a.m. at the Renaissance St. Louis Hotel Airport, 9801 Natural Bridge Road, St. Louis, Missouri.  Public hearings and/or issuance of the variance will be conducted or process according to 10 CSR 20-6.020.

Comments should be confined to the issues relating to the proposed action and their effect on water quality.  The Missouri Department of Natural Resources may not consider as relevant comments or objects based on issues outside the authority of the Clean Water Commission.  See, Curdt v. Mo. Clean Water Commission, 586 S.W.2d 58 (Mo. App. 1979).

All written water quality comments must be postmarked by Feb. 21, 2008 or received in our office by 5 p.m.on Feb. 25, 2008.  These comments and those received at the public hearing will be considered in the formulation of all final determinations regarding the application.

The variance applications and supporting materials, as well as staff recommendations, are available for inspection and copying at the Department of Natural Resources, Division of Environmental Quality, Water Pollution Control Branch, P.O. Box 176, 1101 Riverside Drive, Jefferson City, MO 65102, between the hours of 8 a.m. and 5 p.m., Monday through Friday.