It’s a brewing scandal that touches even the highest points in Missouri’s government. A governor, ironically with the last name “Nixon”, is suspected of hiding a report showing an environmental danger to the general public.

Here’s what’s happened in a nut shell:

The Missouri Department of Natural Resources (DNR) regularly tests the waters of the Lake of the Ozarks, apparently to ensure that the water is safe for human activity. On May 28th, the DNR conducted one such test and learned that the lake had higher than usual levels of E. coli. In fact, the levels were 19 times the state standard and even higher than the federal standard. That’s significant.

But the results, usually released to the public, weren’t released. Joe Bindbeutel, deputy director of the DNR, inexplicably attributed the findings to higher rainfall levels and decided that releasing the findings would harm tourism too significantly. So the results were simply kept secret.

Well, people began to get suspicious. When something that’s released on a regular basis suddenly isn’t released, that’s bound to happen. Requests were filed for the recovery of the documents, but they were ignored. The Democratic Attorney General investigated, but cleared the DNR of any wrongdoing on a legal technicality.

Now here’s where it gets interesting. The office of the governor pleads ignorance of the results until June 23rd. The media picked up the story on July 15th and reports cited a spokesman for the governor criticizing the DNR for keeping the testing results secret. Despite that, Bidenbeutel was appointed by Governor Jay Nixon (D) to a high-profile, high-paid job just one day after his office claims it learned of the results.

Springfield News-Leader reporter Chad Livengood learned from emails released to him that Bindbeutel had asked for copies of the tests on June 3 in preparation for a meeting he was to have with a Nixon aide at the Governor’s. Earl Pabst, a 35-year veteran of DNR and deputy director of environmental quality, also told staff that Bindbeutel was planning to meet with the Governor’s office to discuss the E. coli problem on June 4. But the administration still says that E. coli was not discussed. Pabst has since announced his retirement. According to notes taken during a meeting of the Lake of the Ozarks Watershed Alliance, Binbeutel, said that, “the recent water testing has drawn the attention of the Director of DNR as well as Governor Nixon.”

When Livengood filed his Sunshine request for videotape to see which DNR officials visited Nixon’s office, his request was dismissed based on laws meant to protect security concerns from terrorists! But, writes Livengood, “Missouri Capitol Police provided a Nixon political appointee a copy of video surveillance tapes of the governor’s office, apparently ignoring its own policy barring such disclosures.”

Fast forward a few weeks and we have learned more. DNR director of communications Susanne Medley has resigned without explanation and has not responded to media requests for interviews. Transcripts of interviews she gave state Senate investigators indicate that she learned of the test results on May 29 and immediately passed on the information to the Governor’s staff. This fits with the widely held view of the administration. According the The Kansas City Star, “Nixon is said to run a top-down shop, meaning that his office is the focal point of all executive-level activity. Almost anything that goes on in state government seems to run through Nixon’s office.”

According to Livengood, Medley, “told Senate committee staffers investigating the department’s handling of the report that she told Nixon communications aide Jeff Mazur about the report on May 29.” She reported telling him the “results appear high” and that DNR staff would meet the following Monday to learn more. Medley said she called Mazur because all major news releases were to be run through him. This contradicts Nixon spokesman Jack Cardetti’s assertions that no one in the Governor’s office knew until June 23.

Now there’s word that Nixon may’ve been trying to cover for a major political benefactor and developer, Lynn Griswold. Griswold is currently battling a court case in which he’s accused of building condos by the Lake of the Ozarks without proper sewage treatment facilities. The case was originally served back in 2004 and, according to court documents, the violation continues to this day.

Before being appointed elsewhere, Bindbeutel claims to have had a few meetings with Governor Nixon in June. In one of those meetings attorney Chuck Hatfield was present. (This fact “inadvertently” was not reported to Senate investigators.) Hatfield is a former Nixon chief of staff, close confidante, and lobbyist. Although not registered as a lobbyist for Griswold, Hatfield is Griswold’s defense attorney in the civil suit mentioned above.

The Source suggests that the most plausible explanation is that in one of the meetings where Hatfield was present, Bindbeutel mentioned the high E. coli levels to Governor Nixon. The Source believes Hatfield may have asked Nixon to suppress the results and he did. Ken Midkiff, chairman of the Missouri Clean Water Campaign agrees, according to the Columbia Tribune. He told the paper, that testimony to Senate investigators, “confirms to me that the governor’s office directed and ordered DNR to withhold the data.”

Senate investigations into the matter are still underway. But in order to believe the administration’s changing, and at time contradictory line, one has to discount Medley’s assertion that she was in immediate and repeated communication with Nixon aide Mazur; one has to discount Bindbeutel’s and Pabst’s contemporaneous claims that the matter was to be discussed with Nixon on June 4; and one has to accept that Nixon would have appointed Bindbeutel on the day after learning that he had been risking public health by sitting on a DNR report.

So with the facts as we have them now, it would appear that Governor Jay Nixon (D) learned of the dangerous results earlier than his office claims. His benefactor just happens to be in trouble for having a development by the same dangerous lake without proper sewage treatment facilities, and said benefactor’s attorney just happens to have been present in at least one closed-doors, government meeting on the issue.

It’s a classic tale that could’ve come out of any old Hollywood movie about political corruption. A wealthy backer wants to skirt the law in pursuit of a profit, but the government agency has found an area allegedly affected by his dangerous development to be hazardous to human life. So said wealthy backer has the man he helped put in political office allegedly suppress the report in order to keep running his dangerous development.

This is an issue that deserves not just state-wide but national attention. Corruption at all levels must be exposed.