Officials in Iowa and Missouri estimated that nearly 800,000 fish had died in waters that flow into the Missouri River.

“I refer to this one as ‘the big one,’” said the official, Matt Combes, an ecological health unit science supervisor for the Missouri Department of Conservation. He added: “Calling something a near-total fish kill for 60 miles of a river is astounding and disheartening.”

  • girlfreddy@lemmy.ca
    46·
    9 months ago

    The fish kill was one of the five largest on record in Iowa, according to state data, and the worst since runoff from a dairy farm in 2013 killed more than 800,000 fish. The federal Environmental Protection Agency does not keep similar data on the national level, a spokesman said.

    Why doesn’t the EPA keep data on a national level???!!?!?

    Like wtf?

    • figjam@midwest.socialEnglish
      341·
      9 months ago

      Because then people would know how often this happens and where. Can’t have that disrupting things

      • Maeve@kbin.social
        201·
        9 months ago

        Like most other agencies designed to"protect" people, they’ve been severely refunded, which relates back to your answer.

    • AnarchistArtificer@slrpnk.netEnglish
      5·
      9 months ago

      I’m reminded of how the COVID Tracking Project pulled together fragmented data about tests, cases and deaths because it just wasn’t available on a national level. I heard an interview with the original volunteers, where they explained that they didn’t expect to be collating the data for long, just until the federal government could get its shit together.

      Then huzzah! Finally the white house are giving numbers in their briefings, seems like they’ve finally gotten it together and these volunteers can wind down their work and stop feeling so overwhelmed and out of their depth. What’s more, the white house’s figures were in line with their own figures, so that was a relief — an indication they were doing something right. Except the figures seemed a little too in line, and with a creeping dread, they slowly realised that the white house were using their figures. It’s not just that cavalry wouldn’t be coming to bail them out, but that they, a ragtag team of hundreds of self organised volunteers, were the cavalry.

      It’s a story that’s inspirational and harrowing in equal measure and it’s why I would be more surprised if the EPA did have data available nationally.

      • RagingRobot@lemmy.world
        2·
        9 months ago

        Our government needs a nation technology team. They could provide infrastructure and code to the state organizations that set up these systems so they could keep managing things on their own but in a consistent way that can be shared across states. Any Web site the government needs to build should use the libraries and tools provided by that team. It would save time and money and give so many benefits.

    • SheeEttinEnglish
      1·
      9 months ago

      Same reason the CDC wasn’t allowed to study gun violence. It would have been actionable data.