JEFFERSON CITY — Sen. Luann Ridgeway, R-Smithville, said it all today during a Senate committee meeting discussing a planned “review” of the withholding of a document showing elevated E. coli levels at the Lake of the Ozarks:

“We’ve got to know what they knew and when they knew it,” Ridgeway said.

Sen. Brad Lager, R-Savannah, was a little less dramatic as his committee discussed how it will proceed in trying to determine why the Department of Natural Resources chose to withhold a report ^[1] that the folks who monitor the safety of water at the lake wanted to see.

Lager said his committee is not “investigative” in nature, but that Senate staff members will gather information about the report and why it was withheld, and that he expects his committee will hold hearings to evaluate that information and see if changes need to be made to state statute so that it doesn’t happen again.

Lager said he spoke with John Watson, chief of staff for Gov. Jay Nixon, a Democrat, and that Watson said the governor’s office would cooperate with the review.

“This will not become a political witch hunt,” Lager said. “Our overall goal is to make sure we protect the human health and public safety.”