English Bulldog Puppies for Sale in St. Louis, MO

The Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District will receive the low-interest loan from the Missouri Department of Natural Resources to upgrade its wastewater treatment system

St. Louis’ sewer district will receive the largest loan in the history of Missouri’s clean water fund — equal to almost the entire current balance of the state’s fund for similar projects.

The Missouri Department of Natural Resources announced Monday that it had awarded a $640 million loan to the Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District to upgrade its wastewater system. The loan covers the entire cost of the project and will save ratepayers in the district about $402 million in interest payments over the 30-year term of the loan, the release says.

The project includes replacing incinerators at two wastewater treatment facilities to reduce air pollution and new solids processing buildings. It’s expected to be completed by December 2028.

The Metropolitan St. Louis Sew District’s executive director, Bret Berthold, said in the release it was the largest project the district had ever undertaken.

“It will significantly improve air quality, reduce emissions and support a healthier future for our region,” Berthold said.

Gov. Mike Parson said in the release that the project reflects the fact that “significant endeavors usually require substantial investment.”

“We are absolutely committed to making sure that Missourians in every community have access to quality infrastructure that they rely on every day for life, health and economic opportunity,” Parson said.

The money will come from Missouri’s Clean Water State Revolving Fund, which offers loans at below-market interest rates to communities across Missouri. Cities and sewer districts can use the loans to finance upgrades to their wastewater and sewer systems.

At the end of last month, the Clean Water State Revolving Fund had a balance of $649 million, only a few million dollars more than St. Louis is set to receive.

But the department’s spokesman, Brian Quinn, said St. Louis’ loan won’t wipe out the fund for other borrowers. The fund, he said, receives payments from other loans at the same time it grants new ones.

And St. Louis and other borrowers don’t receive their whole loan at once. Quinn said projects typically receive disbursements over a year and a half or two years, so the St. Louis sewer district won’t get its $640 million as a lump sum.

Dru Buntin, the Department of Natural Resource’s director, said the agency was proud to grant the “record level of assistance for a massive wastewater project that will have such a positive impact for many years to come.”

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St. Louis|Local Event

Jan9

Thu, Jan 9, 2025 at 7:30 PM

City Winery St. Louis, 3730 Foundry Way, St. Louis, MO, 63110

More info here

Celebrate the legendary sounds of Nirvana & Kurt Cobain with Smells Like Nirvana as they will perform songs from "Nevermind", "In Utero", "Bleach" and more (B-sides/rare songs).

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Although the lettuce tested negative, officials said the caterer's salads are still considered a possible source.

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ST. LOUIS COUNTY, Mo. — Test results released Friday eliminated a possible source of an E. coli outbreak that sickened more than 100 people in St. Louis County.

Tests run by the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services detected no traces of E. coli in an unopened package of iceberg lettuce collected at Andre's Banquet Center after an estimated 106 attendees of two school band events, two funerals, and a veterans event catered by the business fell ill.

"A negative test result for the lettuce does not conclusively rule out the salad as the source of the E. coli outbreak," the St. Louis County Health Department said. "This is because bacteria like E. coli often occur in isolated pockets within food products, making it possible for a sampling event to miss the pathogen entirely ... A negative result does not necessarily indicate the absence of the bacteria or eliminate Andre’s as a potential source."

County hospitals said Thursday that two people have since developed hemolytic uremic syndrome, or HUS, a rare but serious disease that can occur as a complication of an E. coli infection. The disease affects the kidneys and blood clotting system and can lead to kidney failure.

"It only happens less than 10% of the time in people that get this E.coli O157:H7. But when it does occur, it can be quite severe, and essentially everybody will wind up in the hospital as a result," said Dr. Farrin Manian, chair of the Department of Medicine and Infectious Disease Physician at Mercy Hospital Saint Louis.

John Armengol Jr., owner of Andre's, released the following statement after the negative test results were released:

"While I am relieved to learn of the Missouri State Public Health Laboratory’s negative test results, I will continue to cooperate with the state and local health departments as they now work to determine the source of E. coli that has caused illnesses in the region and which has resulted in individuals who did not attend any events affiliated with Andre’s contracting E Coli."

Three parents of high school students are suing the catering company. A fourth lawsuit was filed by an adult who ate at one of the events and later tested positive for E. coli.

National food poisoning lawyer Jory Lange with Lange Law Firm and Simon Law Firm represents at least one client hospitalized with E. coli. Lange said they've been contacted by over a dozen people who got sick.

"Andre's has been denying any responsibility for this. Clearly, Andre's is the common denominator. I'm confident this is all going to trace back to Andre's at the end of the day. With respect to how that contamination happened, though, that's something we want to find out," Lange said.

Lange feels health officials should continue testing Andre's salad and other food items.

"The first thing I'd like to see is what products are still left, because a lot of time in outbreaks like this, by the time the health department can get there, the food is gone, it's been eaten, it's been thrown out, or it's gone bad. Then, they need to see what's left to test. For example, with the lettuce, is it the same lot number as what was sold at these events? Because we know Andre's was catering a bunch of different events," said Lange.

Neither the state nor county health department have cleared Andre's of E. coli. Health officials said they still believe the outbreak came from Andre's salad.

"While testing the lettuce is a critical element of the investigation, it represents just one piece of a larger puzzle," the health department said. "The most compelling evidence comes from the epidemiological findings: dozens of individuals with consistent, clinically compatible symptoms, all linked by a single common factor—exposure to a salad from Andre’s. This shared exposure is highly significant and remains the strongest link to the outbreak, regardless of whether a specific contaminated ingredient is identified through testing."