Environmental groups file suit against Engineers, Holcim

ST. LOUIS -- Four environmental groups filed a lawsuit in federal court against the Army Corps of Engineers and the company it has authorized to build the nation's largest cement plant on the Mississippi River.

The lawsuit, filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in St. Louis, challenges a permit for Swiss-based Holcim (U.S.) Inc. to build the proposed plant 45 miles south of St. Louis in Ste. Genevieve County.

The lawsuit claims the Army Corps of Engineers should have prepared an environmental impact statement before issuing a wetlands-destruction permit last month to the company's U.S. division.

The groups -- Missouri Coalition for the Environment, the Sierra Club's Ozark chapter, the Webster Groves Nature Study Society in St. Louis and the American Bottom Conservancy in East St. Louis, Ill. -- say it amounts to clearing the way to "convert an essentially undeveloped and ecologically rich site along the banks of the Mississippi River ... into a heavily industrialized and highly polluting cement manufacturing facility."

4,000-acre site

The cement plant would be located on 4,000 acres adjacent to the Mississippi River. The company would mine limestone for 100 years from the now-wooded countryside, eventually creating a large quarry. The groups say the plant would emit more than 26,000 tons of air pollution each year, obliterate 1,600 acres of forest and industrialize a remaining stretch of natural habitat along the river.

William Levins, attorney for the corps' St. Louis District, said Wednesday he was unaware of the lawsuit but called it "somewhat premature." He said Holcim still must obtain permits from other agencies.

He said the corps had undertaken an environmental assessment, a preliminary step, and concluded that minimal impacts could be handled by conditions in the permit. He said the corps doesn't have to prepare the more comprehensive environmental impact statement even if, as the lawsuit claims, the corps was urged to do so repeatedly by Missouri, Illinois and federal environmental agencies.

The corps only had to consider the effects of the proposed plant on the Mississippi River, while other agencies assess impact on air quality and the land, Levins said.

But Bea Covington, the coalition's executive director, disagrees, saying the law does require the corps to look at impacts on air quality.

"They should in fact be considering all impacts of a project," she said, citing mercury as a classic example of a problem no agency claims as its own.

"Mercury comes out of smokestack, and the water folks say it's not our problem, but it becomes an environmental problem when it hits the water. The whole reason for an EIS is to close loopholes like that, to get a comprehensive picture," Covington said.

Ken Fields, a spokesman for Holcim, said the corps had studied the project for three years.

"After all of that review, the corps determined the project will be built and operated in an environmentally sound manner," Fields said.

The company said Thursday it plans to "avoid, minimize and mitigate environmental effects," including restoring wetlands and maintaining a buffer around the project. It said the lawsuit is a stalling tactic.