by Caroline Pufalt, Conservation Committee Chair
Air permits:
Last year several Ozark chapter activists attended an EPA workshop addressing Title V Clean Air permits. Title V is the permitting process for operation of facilities that emit pollutants. The permitting process is open for public review and comment. Several hardy Ozark Sierrans including Wallace McMullen, Gina DeBarthe, Henry Robertson, and Ginger Harris have reviewed and commented on several Title V permits in Missouri. Henry recently completed an overall review of the Missouri Clean Air Statute against CFR 70 and made several suggestions to assist in better compliance. He submitted his evaluation to the EPA regional office for their review. This represents a lot of hard work, all toward the goal of keeping our air cleaner. Thanks to these dedicated activists!
Smart Growth in mid Missouri:
The Osage Group of the Ozark Chapter has worked hard to help organize and participate in a Boone County Smart Growth Coalition that will encourage city and county government officials to support working together to address some of the significant growth problems facing the Columbia area. The coalition includes several community organizations and demonstrates the broad concern among many area citizens regarding suburban sprawl.
City level activists:
The city of Maryland Heights is one of the hot spots in St. Louis county regarding sprawl. Pressure for development in the flood plain is intense in the area around the infamous Page Avenue extension. But local folks are not sitting idly by. Efforts led by Cheryl Hammond and others have challenged local candidates to be up front about their position on sprawl. Recent elections resulted in victory for two municipal level candidates that are sympathetic to anti-sprawl issues. Congratulations to Cheryl especially for her work in Maryland Heights.
Missouri River management and endangered species:
The Ozark Chapter will participate in a Missouri River basin-wide meeting of club activists on management issues along the Missouri River. Needless to say, the river is long and the problems diverse from Montana to Missouri. At a meeting in June in Omaha Sierrans will work to develop a network through which we can work more effectively along the length of this mighty river. An immediate issue is the Army Corp of Engineers Missouri River Management Plan and its impact on three endangered species, the pallid sturgeon, piping plover and least tern.
Chip mill legislation:
Sierrans are involved in an ongoing effort to develop legislation to address the problems of chip mills in Missouri and to support good forestry on private lands. This is a complicated effort that involves both writing the draft legislation and developing contacts in the state legislature who will support the bill. We hope to have this on board for the 2002 legislative session. The Dogwood Alliance has been working hard on that effort in Missouri and Sierrans such as Tom Kruzan and Ken Midkiff have been contributing much to that effort.
The world's biggest cement plant in Missouri?
Not if folks from the Eastern Missouri Group and the Trail of Tears Group can help it. Volunteers from these two groups, working with Sierrans from Illinois and other organizations such as the Missouri Coalition for the Environment, are mounting a major effort to stop this misguided and polluting development.