By JIM SUHR
Associated Press

(KANSAS CITY, Mo., AP) — A Missouri advocacy group is suing the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, accusing it of shirking its responsibility for properly regulating nutrient levels in hundreds of the state’s lakes.

The nonprofit Missouri Coalition for the Environment Foundation’s lawsuit, filed Wednesday in Kansas City, Missouri, claims that the EPA violated its mandatory duty to issue effective standards for nitrogen and phosphorus levels in lakes statewide under the federal Clean Water Act. Such nutrients are among the biggest U.S. water pollutants, contributing to fish kills, algal blooms and the oxygen-depleted “dead zone” in the Gulf of Mexico, the St. Louis-based coalition said.

EPA spokesman Chris Whitley said Thursday the agency has no comment, citing the pending litigation.

High levels of nitrates and phosphorous, largely the result of runoff of fertilizer and livestock manure applied to farmland, leads to excessive plant and algae growth that depletes oxygen to the point that water can’t support aquatic life. Nutrient pollution is among America’s most widespread, costly and challenging environmental problems, according to the EPA’s website.

The lawsuit, which does not state damage amounts sought, says the Missouri Department of Natural Resources in 2009 adopted nutrient standards for lakes as a first step toward setting thresholds on all of the state’s waters.

But two years later, the EPA rejected the standards and insisted that Missouri failed to show they were based on sound scientific rationale and would protect aquatic life and recreational uses, the lawsuit said. After the state failed to propose revised guidelines within 90 days, the EPA never issued appropriate guidelines as required by law, according to the lawsuit.

The coalition said it notified the EPA in November that a lawsuit was imminent if the federal agency did not address the group’s grievances.

Calling the matter a “straightforward case,” coalition’s water policy coordinator Alicia Lloyd said in a statement Thursday that “the lawsuit is necessary to protect and improve Missouri’s valuable water resources.”