About
the organizer
Angel Kruzen
Ozark Chapter
213 E. 3rd St.
Mountain View, MO 65548
(417) 934-2818 (also fax)
pansgarden@hotmail.com
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Missouri Water Watchdogs Enjoy Successes
 Among
the accomplishments enjoyed by the Missouri Water Sentinels was
the defeat of a Home Depot development that would have severely
damagned a stream and adjacent wetland. The Water Sentinels joined
with other Kansas City community groups to defeat the proposal in
the Little Blue River watershed. In a rare move, the U.S. Army Corps
of Engineers refused to permit the construction.
Other accomplishments:
When the Sentinels uncovered cancer-causing PCBs, chemical spills
and groundwater pollution leaking from the U.S. Department of Energy's
nuclear-weapons trigger plant in Kansas City, they asked state environmental
and health officials to post warning signs downstream to alert the
public to the hazards. When the state refused, the Sentinels posted
warning signs along the stream and spread the word. Sufficiently
embarrassed, state officials subsequently vowed to 'reassess' and
'reevaluate' the health risks to the public and the need for permanent
warning signs downstream of the plant. Read
more...
The project also monitors water quality in northern Missouri,
home to hog factory giant Premium Standard Farms. Missouri's industrial
"hog lot" sprawls across more than 55,000 acres, where
PSF confines nearly 2.5 million hogs annually in enormous metal
and concrete warehouses, generating an ocean of liquefied feces
equivalent to the population of metro St. Louis. The Sentinels volunteers
have been all over this notorious polluter, like stink on…well,
you know. The project's water-quality data and videotaped surveillance
have initiated numerous state enforcement actions for over-application
of hog wastes, including several Letters of Warning and Notices
of Violation. Read more...
The project's water monitoring in River Des Peres in St. Louis
revealed dangerous levels of fecal bacteria and raw human feces
discharging into the river after heavy rains - and with children
frequently playing in the concrete channel! The Sentinels asked
state officials to post warning signs along the stream to alert
the public. The state refused. So the Sentinels posted the stream
at all public access points. The St. Louis Metropolitan Sewer District
ultimately owned up to the pollution, posted permanent warning signs,
and released a long-range cleanup plan. Read
more...
Photo: Sierra Club Clean Water Campaign Director Ken Midkiff speaks at a July 2002 press
conference on River des Peres. Photo by Scott Dye.
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