EPA: Floodway water shows typical contamination

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) -- The Environmental Protection Agency says tests on receding floodwaters in Southeast Missouri's Birds Point-New Madrid Floodway showed contamination below levels that would raise health concerns.

The EPA's regional office in Kansas City, Kan., said Tuesday that the nine samples of water collected from the floodway area showed contamination levels "typically found" in the Mississippi River.

Earlier EPA tests showed levels of E. coli bacteria well below Missouri's official standard for fishing, wading and boating activities

The 130,000-acre floodway was inundated May 2 when the Army Corps of Engineers intentionally breached the levee to reduce the threat of major flooding from the Mississippi and Ohio rivers in Cairo, Ill.