by Matt Ankney
Missouri’s wild turkey population has declined since the late 1990’s partially due to habitat loss. The NextGen Silica open pit blasting sand mine facility next to Hawn State Park will be 250 to 400 acres in size and use ammonium nitrate with fuel oil (ANFO) for explosives; the massive blasts ripping away bedrock are heard over 10 miles away, scattering wildlife in all directions. I can’t think of anything worse for the health and well-being of our native turkey, taking refuge in protective sandstone coves, hollows, and canyons, than allowing the mine to be in this particular prime forest habitat of Shortleaf pine uncommon in most of the Show-Me-State.
Local residents of Ste. Genevieve are fortunate to have NextGen Silica bless them with ruining their air, water, quality of life, local parks, ability to live peacefully, property values, the native wildlife, dark skies at night, and safe driving conditions along Highway 32. Our state views these companies as benevolent gods to be appeased at all cost, including ordaining them special public tax subsidies, gifting NextGen Silica and similar polluters your money usually reserved for schools and roads.
In the long run, the mine does not create jobs, but destroys them forever; ruining the land where nothing will ever grow nor live. That means, for example, in 2,200 A.D., one-hundred and eighty years into the future where viable property outside crowded cities will be at a premium, nobody will live there, no services will be required, no new construction, no landscaping, no home repair, no logging, no park space, no vineyard, no bed and breakfast, no farmhouse, no family picnics, no business, no deliveries, no turkey, no deer, nothing. All potential commerce, jobs, recreation, and future tax revenue lost forever in the name of an unstable, antiquated fossil fuel energy industry by using the native Lamotte sandstone in natural gas extraction elsewhere. That land will not be an orchard, forest, field, or farm. It will not have residents contributing to local taxes, just a fenced-off, giant hole in the ground full of contaminated water the landowners plan on selling back to us, so we then must be responsible for their disaster forever, as they are free to leave and live the high life.
It’s incredible how much pain and suffering the Department of Natural Resources has already facilitated by elevating a handful of dishonest special interests over the will of the people. Creating a monster, the corrupt state issuing the mine permit allowed NextGen standing in court to sue the county. Times have changed and our voices are ignored. “Pro-business” in Missouri political speak now means: anti-democratic minority rule; an exclusive club of insiders dominating the rest of us with a lap dog media willing to validate their insatiable greed, happily regurgitating industry talking points by framing every issue as “both sides” in a cynical and disingenuous manner most folks recognize.
The latest revelation, NextGen is suing the residents of Ste. Genevieve County because folks exercised their local democratic rights is beyond the pale and should make not only NextGen Silica completely unwelcome in the community, but also those associated with this heinous corporate bullying bringing so much misery to a normally serene place of peaceful solitude and freedom.
SAVE HAWN! is hosting a public meeting Saturday, July 16 at 2:30 pm in Hawn State Park at the campground amphitheater; members of the public are encouraged to attend. You can find more information about the pro-park, anti-mine group SAVE HAWN! on Facebook.