A State Senate investigation into the withholding of reports on E. coli levels in the Lake of the Ozarks has attracted a lot of media attention lately. You might have been wondering what the story was about - we did, too - so we put together a backgrounder. It’s going to be worth following over the next few weeks, unfortunately there’s no way around the gritty details:
The Department of Natural Resources (DNR) conducts regular tests on E. coli levels in Missouri lakes. On May 28, a test found dangerous levels of E. coli in the Lake of the Ozarks. In two areas, levels were 19 times higher than state standards, and in more than half of the testing sites levels exceeded federal guidelines for safe swimming conditions.
You'd think they'd warn people, right?
The regular protocol was to release the results immediately, cautioning residents and tourists about the health risk. But Jim Bindbeutel, Deputy Director of the DNR and a Nixon appointee, claims he decided not to do that. He said he was concerned was that rainfall had temporarily elevated E. coli levels, and a DNR spokesperson also confirmed that they were worried about scaring away tourists.
They kept the test results secret - despite multiple requests from the media and concerned individuals who were wondering why they hadn't been released.
According to the Nixon administration, the issue wasn’t reported to them until an oversight meeting on June 23, at which point they ordered the release of the information. The DNR released the results alongside June’s test results, showing the lakes were now safer - but far too late to warn anyone about the health risk in May.
After July 15 the story was picked up by the media, at which point a Nixon aide, Jack Cardetti, criticized the DNR for not releasing the data sooner. Attorney General Chris Koster initiated an investigation and concluded the DNR was wrong to try to bury the test results. But because public inquiries about the tests (which are public records) weren't phrased in the 'proper' terms of the Sunshine law - the DNR did nothing illegal.
Everything up to this point has covered the 'official' story: the DNR made a terrible error in judgment and the day was saved by the Nixon administration. Happily, no laws were violated and nobody directly accountable to the voters was implicated.
But a growing body of evidence is suggesting that the Nixon administration had been aware of the test results for some time and condoned withholding them from the public. In our next post on Lakegate, we’ll detail where everything went wrong for the Nixon administration – and why this might be the biggest political crisis they will ever face.
The Department of Natural Resources (DNR) conducts regular tests on E. coli levels in Missouri lakes. On May 28, a test found dangerous levels of E. coli in the Lake of the Ozarks. In two areas, levels were 19 times higher than state standards, and in more than half of the testing sites levels exceeded federal guidelines for safe swimming conditions.
You'd think they'd warn people, right?
The regular protocol was to release the results immediately, cautioning residents and tourists about the health risk. But Jim Bindbeutel, Deputy Director of the DNR and a Nixon appointee, claims he decided not to do that. He said he was concerned was that rainfall had temporarily elevated E. coli levels, and a DNR spokesperson also confirmed that they were worried about scaring away tourists.
They kept the test results secret - despite multiple requests from the media and concerned individuals who were wondering why they hadn't been released.
According to the Nixon administration, the issue wasn’t reported to them until an oversight meeting on June 23, at which point they ordered the release of the information. The DNR released the results alongside June’s test results, showing the lakes were now safer - but far too late to warn anyone about the health risk in May.
After July 15 the story was picked up by the media, at which point a Nixon aide, Jack Cardetti, criticized the DNR for not releasing the data sooner. Attorney General Chris Koster initiated an investigation and concluded the DNR was wrong to try to bury the test results. But because public inquiries about the tests (which are public records) weren't phrased in the 'proper' terms of the Sunshine law - the DNR did nothing illegal.
Everything up to this point has covered the 'official' story: the DNR made a terrible error in judgment and the day was saved by the Nixon administration. Happily, no laws were violated and nobody directly accountable to the voters was implicated.
But a growing body of evidence is suggesting that the Nixon administration had been aware of the test results for some time and condoned withholding them from the public. In our next post on Lakegate, we’ll detail where everything went wrong for the Nixon administration – and why this might be the biggest political crisis they will ever face.
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