By Marshall Griffin, St. Louis Public Radio
Jefferson City, Mo. – Missouri Lt. Governor Peter Kinder is sounding off on the controversy over the delaying of an E. coli report from the Lake of the Ozarks.
Kinder calls the uproar over the delayed report a crisis of confidence. And he says if the State Senate committee investigating the matter decides to issue subpoenas, he'll sign them.
"I don't believe that we can trust the (Nixon) administration to investigate itself...when the governor was Attorney General just a few months ago, he did not settle for that in the Eckersley case," Kinder said.
Fallout over the one-month delayed release of the report has resulted in Governor Jay Nixon suspending Natural Resources Director Mark Templeton for two weeks.
Test results from late May at two sites on the Lake of the Ozarks showed E. coli levels to be 19 time higher than the federal standard.
Governor Nixon's press office was contacted for this story, but so far there has been no response.