So, Thursday of last week I got a call from the Director of the Missouri Department of Natural Resources, Sarah Parker Pauley. One doesnt get a call from such folks often. I was somewhat amazed. We talked for 10 minutes. She announced to me that EPA and MDNR have found enough awry at Coastal Energy to warrant turning this mess over to Missouri Attorney General, Chris Koster. I received this initially as good news...and so it is on one level. Enough has been uncovered that shows Coastal Energys owner, David Montgomery may be legally liable for his current operation in Willow Springs that sits IMMEDIATELY NEXT TO the Eleven Point River. That distance-100+ feet does NOT allow for much wiggle room in the event of a major or minor accident at the facility. Does the facility have a total oil storage capacity greater than or equal to a million gallons and is the facility located at a distance such that a discharge from the facility could cause injury to fish and wildlife and sensitive environments? Montgomery answered question 3 in his Certification of Applicability of the Substantial Harm Checklist with a hard checked box NO: An article by Jack Suntrup in Fridays Post-Dispatch mentioned that the Mo. Attorney General has offered to NEGOTIATE with Coastal over their structural and legal deficiencies. We have said it before and we maintain the fact that it was a mistake to place this facility in such an environmentally sensitive area. Even minor leaks or spills of several hundred gallons or less of diesel or ethanol pose a real threat to the INTEGRITY of the WATER QUALITY of Greer Spring and the Eleven Point National (and Wild and Scenic ) River Thin fluids like diesel and ethanol permeate the thin soil quickly. Eight inch rains like we had last week will mix with such liquids and eventually send them downstream to Greer Spring and the karst system. This facility is literally sitting in a field of sinkholes and next to a National Scenic River. What is there to negotiate? When the EPA and MDNR forced the Willow Springs Waste Water Treatment Plant to de-chlorinate their water effluent discharged into the Eleven Point in 2001, they made a de-facto statement that water quality for this river is of supreme importance to the Federal Government. The EPA and MDNR are supposed to protect this natural resource. On a 2011 float and fishing trip on the Eleven Point River, Governor Jay Nixon called the river a marvelous wonder, that, with good conservation, can be enjoyed for generations to come. We agree! The karst and the proximity to the river of 2.8 million gallons of poison make this situation a NON-NEGOTIABLE one. Try negotiating with a catastrophic sinkhole collapse under or adjacent to these tanks. Like the photograph below of the sinkhole under the house in Nixa -the owner would have loved to negotiate with Mother Earth not to erupt under his house! But I guess that negotiation was a failure. The negotiation concerning the West Plains Sewage Lagoon in the next picture was also a failure. Tell Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster NOT to negotiate away the water quality of one of Americas Outstanding National Resource Waters! Move the tanks! Contact: Missouri Attorney Generals Office Supreme Court Building 207 W. High St. P.O. Box 899 Jefferson City, MO 65102 Phone: 573-751-3321 Fax: 573-751-0774
Posted on: Sat, 25 Oct 2014 20:46:04 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015