Guys, my rant was mainly about pouring water out in the Mark Twain Forest.
When I was a kid, I'd ride my 10speed bike 40 miles to Table Rock Lake, at Branson, Mo. I could stand on a dock and see the lake bottom in 15+ feet of water. The population of Branson was about 3,500, today it's 12,600+ along with over a million visitors, you can't see the bottom of the lake in 3 feet of water.
1960 Silver Dollar City cast, where later I worked for the guy on the far right of the bottom row, leading horseback rides.
The horses would dump on the trail, in the river that led to the lake. We didn't think anything of it back then.
Today there are about 35,000 head of cattle in Stone County, Even more in Christian County and Greene County, both upstream.
The authorities still don't think anything of it, they do care about the residents who have septic tanks, perc tests required, fines if not functioning properly. Resorts around the lake have their own sewer treatment facilities. Branson has a sewer system.
This is limestone country, my place on the lake sat on about 2/3 feet of dirt then on a solid rock shelf. The place was built in the early 60's, the septic sat in a concrete block walled area above ground, the laterals were laid above ground initially then sloped off in those 2 or 3 feet of soil. The leach field was 90 feet from the lake. While this is not the best sewer system, it's a lot better than BS dumped on the ground or in the waters.
@vintageracer Guess what, most septic systems are not Aeration Sceptics, where aerobic injected systems are used, you just pump out the solids. I'm speaking of powered automated systems, not just best practice for proper maintenance.
MODNR can get ones attention when they say the fine for illegal sewer systems can be $25,000 per discharge occurrence or $10,000 per day! Yet, farmers and "ranchers" run cattle through the rivers and lake shallows without a thought or a dime to pay.
I may sound bitter, but I'm not really, the lake needs to be cleaned up, but the real violators need to be more responsible.