Pittsburg State University biologist James Whitney finds a dead mussel’s shell while sifting through rocks in the Spring River. Celia Llopis-Jepsen/ Kansas News Service
Joshua Holloway, another member of the research team, finds an endangered Neosho mucket in the Spring River. Behind him, Kai Baucom and Jamie Leeper continue their search for mussels. Celia Llopis-Jepsen/ Kansas News Service
For decades before anyone talked about cleaning up the pollution in one of the world’s top lead and zinc mining regions, heavy metals pummeled the Spring River.The wildlife took a beating in this waterway that flows from the Missouri Ozarks into Kansas and down toward Oklahoma’s Grand Lake, a popular fishing and boating spot.In stretches of the river, and its feeder streams th...