Press Release, August 28, 2003

Environmental Groups File Lawsuit in State Court Challenging Quarry Permit for Proposed Cement Plant Project St. Louis, Missouri. 

A lawsuit was filed against Holcim, Inc. and the Missouri Land Reclamation Commission challenging the issuance of a 100-year quarry permit by the Land Reclamation Commission. Holcim, Inc. had sought the quarry permit in connection with its proposed project to build the largest cement plant in the U.S. 40 miles south of St. Louis, at the border between Jefferson County and Ste. Genevieve County. The appeal was filed in St. Louis County Circuit Court on 8/27/03 by the Webster Groves Nature Study Society, the Missouri Coalition for the Environment, the Ozark Chapter of the Sierra Club, and the American Bottom Conservancy. The permit for open-pit limestone mining would authorize Holcim to destroy approximately 1,600 acres of forest. The Missouri Dept. of Natural Resources is still reviewing the air pollution impacts of the proposed cement plant and no permit to build the plant has been issued. 

This lawsuit in state court comes on the heels of another lawsuit filed by the same groups earlier this month in federal court challenging a permit issued by the U.S. Corps of Engineers on the same proposed project. “The proposed quarry site is located in a biologically diverse area. This forest is home to the endangered Indian Bat, many species of migrating and breeding birds, salamanders and other wildlife. The steep, rugged hillsides and the extensive watershed of streams that drain into Isle du Bois Creek and the Mississippi River would all be obliterated by Holcim’s limestone mining activities,” commented Yvonne Homeyer, president of the Webster Groves Nature Study Society, an organization with members throughout the metropolitan St. Louis area. “This area should be designated as a nature preserve instead of being blown to bits by explosives.” 

Ted Heisel, of the Missouri Coalition for the Environment, stated, “Holcim intends to strip mine the site for 100 years and then walk away, leaving a huge hole in the ground. That’s a shame, because there are other ways of mining limestone that would have left much more of the landscape intact. Despite all its rhetoric, this company has flatly refused to modify its project to project the environment.” Carla Klein, Executive Director of the Ozark Chapter of the Sierra Club, remarked: “The proposed Holcim cement plant would wreak havoc on the environment. The industrial equipment and limestone quarry would devastate a pristine area along the Mississippi River and worsen the quality problems that plague the St. Louis region. There are less damaging ways of mining and production that would reduce the negative impacts on the environment. The Holcim company and the Missouri Dept. of Natural Resources need to reexamine this project.” 

The four organizations are represented by attorneys from the Interdisciplinary Environmental Clinic of the Washington University School of Law.

CONTACTS: 
Webster Groves Nature Study Society 
Yvonne Homeyer, President (314) 863-3321 - office; or (314) 496-8894 - cell 

Missouri Coalition for the Environment Ted Heisel, Sr. Law and Policy Coordinator (314) 401-6218 

Ozark Chapter of the Sierra Club
Carla Klein, Exec. Director (573) 815-9250 

American Bottom Conservancy
Kathy Andria, President (618) 271-9605, x106