By Matt Ankney
Located in both Ste. Genevieve and St. Francois Counties, Highway 32 is one of Missouri’s finest natural area corridors in a quiet, pastoral setting.
Pickle Springs is one of the most important, sensitive ecological areas in the state with high stream quality containing Ice Age plant relics and things like salamanders preserved in a local microclimate.
Hawn State Park is a crown jewel in the Missouri State Park System and one of the quietest, most popular parks in the Midwest due to size, unique Shortleaf pine forest setting, access to clear streams, and camping facilities combined with around 30 miles of hiking trails.
Hickory Canyons is a local favorite for families on nice weekends that is a very quiet, peaceful place of solitude and meditation. It also is a refuge for sensitive plants.
This entire area is situated in the northeast corner of the trillion gallon St. Francois Aquifer, an amoeba-shaped underground reservoir made of 500 million year-old Lamotte Sandstone Formation vulnerable to earthquakes, vibration damage from explosives used in mining, and also chemical and sediment pollution from industrial waste run-off, spills, and harmful, standard mining practices because the surface bedrock is naturally porous.
Mines need almost an unlimited water supply to use for standard mining processes. If you drain a lateral section of the underground aquifer too much, it could collapse due to lack of internal pressure that naturally occurs as groundwater enters a void, which might obstruct that section as the bedrock structure changes.
This would ultimately reduce the overall capacity of the aquifer, permanently damaging it’s structure and reducing local access to freshwater forever.
Almost all of Farmington’s available groundwater supply could be contaminated forever.
Physicians at Barnes Hospital in St. Louis already refer to this area as the “Tumor Belt” due to the unusually high rate of cancers from previous manmade industrial waste in the form of a few abandoned lead mines which now serve as municipal water reservoirs for fortunate residents in the surrounding area.
This could make it much worse since they plan an epic 50 year run.
https://pubs.usgs.gov/ha/ha730/ch_d/D-ozark6.html
This area is home to spectacular migratory birds from Central and South America called the Summer tanager and the Indigo bunting. They seem to prefer the wild habitat of thick, uninterrupted pine woods found in this area during their seasonal visit.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Summer_tanager
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indigo_bunting
I will be going on a 5 mile hike with my girlfriend on the best weather day next weekend April 30/May 1 at Hawn State Park, if people are interested and want an informed guide for no charge.
The mine will ruin Hawn State Park and adjacent public lands, period.
In the name of a dirty, corrupt, price gouging fossil industry whose time is over. A few years ago, the price of natural gas became so low that the fracking industry almost collapsed. This is the definition of an unstable, antiquated form of energy we should be avoiding at all costs this late in the game, especially if we don’t even know if it is viable from one year to the other and creating a giant 250-acre hole in the ground is not the answer to anything.
Noise pollution, alone, will kill the parks’ surrounding area. The company denied water and ground pollution in their public statement about run-off, etc. but left an opening about noise, I am sure people will be able to hear the obnoxious mining operation with giant dump trucks backing up, equipped with screaming reverse alarms at 150 to 200 decibels, all the way in the backcountry on the Whispering Pines South Loop even at night because it will be a 24-7 operation.
Hickory Canyons will be totally ruined forever from noise at less than a mile and a half away from the screeching, booming sand mine. You might as well erase it from the map. I probably won’t want to visit there anymore just to not be reminded of it.
This will immediately decrease the property value and quality of life of surrounding residences. This will take money away from local towns and schools as tax revenue decreases.
The nighttime light pollution in the area will be horrible and life changing for locals near the mine. Giant industrial facilities in the modern age are lit with ultra-bright stadium lights and now their blinding LED equivalents.
Dark Sky Parks are very popular recently in the United States, Hawn will never be a Dark Sky Park, thanks to the mine. The company probably has no response to that, either, including the DNR.
This is worst-case scenario for this area. The entire high quality environmental and natural visitor experience to these many popular park properties will be ruined. Tourism to the area will be harmed. Local business will suffer. People will be very upset for years. They have no idea how much this park is loved by people even outside Missouri.
Schoolteacher Helen lived the American Dream. She owned a special part of the wild Missouri Ozarks, riding horseback on weekends around what is Hawn State Park, today. She left her land to the state with the idea that future generations would respect it and protect it. Now, Helen’s property is one of the most popular parks in the entire Midwest. The value of the land is priceless and supports the value of land in the surrounding scenic area high in biodiversity and quality of life. Every time I visit Hawn State Park and other wonders of nature like nearby Hickory Canyons, I think of Helen. I hope we don’t let her down.
You can find my local outdoor business page at:
Missouri Ozark Wilderness Guide
https://www.facebook.com/OzarkHikingGuide
Here is an article I wrote for Terrain Magazine about one of the hiking races I founded in the Ozarks for more information about my outdoor pursuits:
https://terrain-mag.com/the-birth-of-the-taum-a-hawk…/
If you would like to copy this to interested parties, please do. Thanks.
