Polluted Ozark river is finally bouncing back from disaster

Up From Dust Humans broke the environment — but we can heal it, too. Up From Dust is a podcast about the price of trying to shape the world around our needs, and the folks who are fixing our generational mistakes.

The fish and rare mussels hiding in the Spring River that flows through Kansas and Missouri are signs that environmental cleanups are helping river wildlife recover from a century of mining pollution.

CHEROKEE COUNTY, Kansas – 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 riv