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Ballot Issue Would Allow Municipalities to Share Water Treatment Plants.

October 22, 1996
By: Tracy Sadeghian
State Capital Bureau

Backers of Constitutional Amendment Number Six say they want to reduce pollution in Missouri's water supply and help de-regulate certain non-profit water commissions.

K-B-I-A's Tracy Sadeghian has the story from the State Capital...

Actuality:Sadeghian
RunTime:
OutCue:

Approval of the ballot issue would do two things. First..local governments could afford to set up water and sewage treatment plants by sharing the cost with other municipalities.

Second..Northeastern Missouri's Clarence Cannon Wholesale Water Commission would no longer be controlled by the Public Service Commission.

Mexico Senator Joe Maxwell spearheaded the measure. He says it will help curb water pollution.. especially in rural Missouri...

Actuality:Maxwell
RunTime:
OutCue: "...contaminates it."
Contents: "We find that many of our small communities don't even have a lagoon system. And small communities are still very dependent upon septic tanks and individual lagoons. Often times, in our area, and I say our area, because I'm a rural legislator, we find that these old septic tanks are no longer adequate and that the sewage is actually leeching into the underground water which contaminates it."

Maxwell says if the ballot issue passes, Missouri communities will be able to pay for the water and sewage treatment facilities they couldn't afford otherwise.

The measure would free nonprofit water commissions...with consumer-elected boards of directors..from the regulation of the Public Service Commission.

Maxwell says this would basically effect just one water commission... the Clarence Cannon Wholesale Water Commission. It would set its own rates and regulate itself.

However, all private water treatment plants in Missouri will remain under the control of the Public Service Commission.

For K-B-I-A's Capital Edition, I'm Tracy Sadeghian.