The land in this region of Missouri and Illinois is laced with karst geology that serves to intensify the relationship between surface and groundwater. Thus water is of intense interest to St Louis; moreover, the issues of water in this region have application to other communities worldwide. Chapters in the book represent interdisciplinary papers from a symposium held in April 2001, which addressed such topics as water supply, water pollution, groundwater, healthy rivers and streams, floods, riparian habitat, and providing a supply of clean drinking water.