URGENT ACTION NEEDED. We have received a public notice from the Corps of Engineers concerning an application by Holnam, Inc. for a Section 404 (Clean Water Act) permit to build a cement plant on 4,000 acres along the Mississippi River 30 miles south of St. Louis. The total project encompasses a cement plant, a harbor facility, barges, a 2,000 acre quarry, a railroad spur, an access road, and a haul road. It is a project of gigantic proportions. Wetlands, bottomland, woods, caves, springs, streams and prehistoric Native American Indian sites will all be negatively affected if not completely destroyed. Five endangered species and one threatened species are located in the range of this project: Peregrine Falcon, Bald Eagle, Indiana bat, Gray bat, Least Tern and Pallid Sturgeon. The life of this project will be more than 100 years.

Given the extensive nature of this project and the destruction of wetlands, bottomland, springs, streams, caves, and prehistoric Native Indian sites, WGNSS is asking the Corps for three things: 1) To extend the public comment period, which now expires on December 6, by an additional 30 days; 2) To require the applicant to submit an Environmental Impact Statement; and 3) To hold a public hearing.

We have prepared an individual letter (attached to this newsletter) that you can tear off, sign and mail in to the Corps, or feel free to write your own. YOUR INDIVIDUAL LETTERS ARE IMPORTANT. In addition, we are asking that you CALL Michael Ricketts, Project Manager at the Corps (314-331-8811), and inform him that you are concerned about this project and want to see the above three steps taken to ensure that all environmental considerations are thoroughly reviewed. If you wish to email your comments, you can contact Michael Ricketts at: michael.s.ricketts@mvs02.useace.army.mil. The current deadline is DECEMBER 6 so please act now.

If you would like more information, go to the St. Louis District's web site at: http://www.mvs.useace.army.mil./permits. Then click on Public Notices. However, at the time this article was written, the Corps' web site link to the correct Public Notice, P-2259, is faulty. The project is incorrectly identified as P-2253, and that link will take you to an unrelated Public Notice. The correct Public Notice is P-2259, which is incorrectly described as an MSD storm channel project. If you continue to experience this same flaw, be sure to note that in your letters and phone calls to the Corps, and add that this is another reason why the December 6 deadline should be extended.

Holnam's own web site is: http://www.holnam.com. Based in Dundee, Michigan, it is a subsidiary of the Swiss company Holderbank, the largest cement producer in the world.

OTHER NEWS. In October, Kathy Andria, an environmental activist in the Metro East area and director of American Bottom Conservancy, was invited to testify before the House of Representative's Committee on Government Reform concerning the need for wetlands protection and preservation and the need for reform at the Corps of Engineers. Although the Corps only denies about 1% of Section 404 applications, apparently even that is too much for some Congressmen, who have proposed abolishing the Section 404 permits altogether by making them "voluntary".

The permit issued to Gateway International Raceway to expand the dirt road connecting the raceway with Collinsville Road has not been made publicly available. WGNSS has made a formal request in writing to the St. Louis Corps office to send WGNSS a copy of the permit, so we can see if any restrictions have been placed on Gateway and so we can monitor whether Gateway complies with the permit.

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