Points of interest for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

1. A project of this magnitude demands that an Environmental Impact Study be done. The current Environmental Assessment that expired in 2002 is insufficient.
   
2. Construction of a four-lane highway down the center line of Creve Coeur Creek could have devastating impacts to the creek’s beneficial uses (protection of aquatic life including human health protection for fish consumption, swimming and livestock and wildlife watering [per Missouri Dept. of Natural Resources, May 26, 2009].
   
3. USACE: “According to the EA, no species of conservation concern, including State and Federal listed threatened and endangered species, were observed during field reconnaissance of the study area. In addition, the report stated that there is no formally designated critical habitat within the study area.”
   
   a. St. Louis County Environmental Assessment (4/16/09): The following Federal and State listed species have been observed during field reconnaissance of the study area:American bittern, Snowy egret, northern harrier, king rail, peregrine falcon, loggerhead shrike, pied-billed grebe, least bittern, little blue heron, black-crowned heron, sora rail, common moorhen, marsh wren, Henslow’s sparrow, Virginia rail, great egret, cooper’s hawk. yellow-headed blackbird, black tern. In addition, the area is potential habitat for the Indiana bat.
   
4. The increase in impermeable surfaces caused by the project will exacerbate flooding already occurring in the area.
   
5. The chosen alternative (Alternative 4) will have the most detrimental effect on the environment with high impacts to the floodplain.
   
6. Alternative 4 is the most expensive of all alternatives.
   
7. Pollutants removed from the elevated roadway via runoff will be channeled into the creek and adjacent wetlands.
   
8. Erosion to bluffs along the western edge of the project area, already a serious problem, will increase due to construction of and vibrations from the roadway.
   
9. St. Louis County’s representatives Sheryl Hodges, John Hicks and Glenn Henninger have stated that the wetland will be moved for two and one half years and then moved back to its original location. That is not stated in this application.
   
10. The new highway will have negative impact on property values along the project area. Current studies show 17-42 percent decrease along St. Louis highway projects for like home style and home price.
    
11. The cultural resources in the area were obviously ignored, thus being disturbed or destroyed by recent development allowed there. There has been no guarantee that the current evaluation will result in protection from further damage.
    
12. Traffic studies conducted by Crawford, Bunte, Brammeier show that traffic to accrue from this construction is foreseen worse than currently indicated in less than twenty years.
    
13. Economic studies show that the development planned for the Howard Bend floodplain is mostly retail. Economic indicators show a downhill trend in retail developments as such effecting local economies due to lack of industry and increase of minimum wage earners making less and relying on government assistance. The destruction of farmland will lessen the local economic impact for every local dollar spent by 40 percent.
    
14. There is no amount of paint or intricate concrete design that will make this bridge appealing in this natural setting. There has been no proven benefit to the fish and wildlife in the area. More concrete and destruction of watershed will only increase the already increasing flooding in the area.

Army Corps of Engineers permit application

St Louis County has applied for their Clean Water Act Section 404 permit from the Army Corps of Engineers. They need this permit to be able to fill in the wetlands where their portion of the highway is proposed to be constructed and thus need it to go forward. The 404 permit is still in the public comment phase, meaning it is not final and has not been granted, but the Army Corps is soliciting public input about whether or not the permit should be granted. You can see the permit here.

The comment period is open until October 16, 2009. Comments can be submitted as detailed in the permit application (to the Army Corps address on the first page of the permit). Please submit comments -- any personal experiences you have with flooding in the area in/near where the road is proposed to be built, or anything else that you feel is inaccurate in the permit application would be important to comment on. Additionally, as part of the 404 permitting process, the Corps allows interested parties to request a public hearing on a permit application (public hearings are not routinely held as part of the 404 process, but can be held by the Corps if they so choose). A public hearing would be another place to have our voices heard, and would obviously do a little bit to slow the project down, so it's important that we let the Corps know that we want one.

Letter to the editor of the Post-Dispatch, published 9/21/09:

Regarding "Chesterfield accepts 141 work, tries to limit impact" (Sept. 13): Here are some questions that everyone should be asking about the Highway 141 project:

— What health problems will occur from routing a six-lane highway directly over an open source for our drinking water?

— How was the Missouri Department of Transportation able to use an expired environmental assessment that doesn't include any newer development?

— What will happen when construction stirs up toxic chemicals in the soil and creek from Parkway's non-regulated reclamation facility?

— Why isn't the mayor insisting an environmental impact statement be done?

— There are legal appeals and lawsuits pending, so what happens when the deadlines for federal funding can't be met?

— St. Louis County and MoDOT have not acquired all the land needed; how are they able to start construction and how much land are they planning to condemn and take by eminent domain?

— How can they start construction when all permits needed are not secured?

— Do Chesterfield residents know they are paying $15 million for this extension, $10 million for prettier bricks and $5 million for the northern section of the road itself. That is on top of the money they are paying as a resident of the county. How much more are we going to take? The mayor of Chesterfield tells us not to fight because that makes it easier for him, but it doesn't mean we shouldn't fight. The question isn't why we would fight; it's why wouldn't we?

Kim Cuddeback — Maryland Heights
Co-founder, Maryland Heights Residents for Responsible Growth

Mayor John Nations against Chesterfield

From the Post-Dispatch: Chesterfield mayor on the front lines of Highway 141

Nations, you don't get it. Residents don't want the project stopped. What they want is due process.

Building a 6-lane elevated highway on top of and through high-quality wetlands, demolishing a homestead that's eligible for the National Register of Historic Places, blowing off warnings from the Missouri Department of Natural Resources, not conducting an Environmental Impact Study, beginning work without permits and without all right-of-way acquisitions completed, spending much, much more money than is necessary ($72 MILLION FOR FIVE MILES) ----- this is absolutely irresponsible, Mayor.

Insignificant... really?

MoDot and FHWA have issued a FONSI (Finding Of No Significant Impact) for the Page-Olive Connector. This despite never conducting an Environmental Impact Study and the voicing of strong concerns voiced by the Missouri Department of Natural Resources (DNR).

This does not bode well for the wetlands, Creve Coeur Creek and Creve Coeur Lake. St. Louis County says it will try to minimize impact to these resources and "Some impacts may require mitigation such as construction of new wetlands near the project area to replace those that are impacted by the project."

That just doesn't gibe with DNR's statement: "Construction of a four-lane highway down the center line of Creve Coeur Creek and its riparian zones could have devastating impacts to the creek's beneficial uses."

Devastating, yet insignificant?!

Tax payers, do you also find paying back the $130 million cost of these projects to be insignificant?

Farm Aid to take place on threatened farm land!

Help us out here, Willie Nelson.

"Farm Aid has deep roots in the Midwest that reach back to our first concert in Illinois in 1985," said Farm Aid president Willie Nelson. "I'm looking forward to bringing my friends together on the Farm Aid stage to celebrate family farmers and the crucial work they do. Farmers do so much more than bring us the good food we all want to eat. America needs family farmers to revitalize our economy and make our country healthy."

We're so struck with the irony of this year's Farm Aid being held on farm land that's being targeted for commercial development. The Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre sits in the midst of some of the most fertile land in America, which St. Louis County plans to run a superhighway through, followed closely by the destruction of every farm there.

"Completing the Page to Olive Connector will improve access to the Howard Bend area. Various studies have indicated the economic benefit of construction, sales, wages and other elements could be as high as 20 billion dollars over twenty years. The economic benefit will extend throughout the region and the state." ~from St. Louis County's Page-Olive Connector website.

We'll be right there with you on October 4th, Mr. Nelson. Will you be with us?

Goodbye, Lucky Girl

Local agriculture no longer welcome in St. Louis County.

St. Louis County issued a project RFQ yesterday, indicating that they anticipate receipt of a signed Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI) in mid-July. Signing of the FONSI to be done by MoDOT and FHWA.

Thus far, our pleas for an Environmental Impact Study (EIS) are going ignored.

Please send your concerns as soon as possible to FHWA: http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/modiv/roster.htm and MoDOT's mailto:Karen.Yeomans@modot.mo.gov

Mill Ridge conversation

Chatted with a woman who lives in Mill Ridge this evening. She said she was told by the owner of that development that the County was going to build the Page-Olive Connector where existing Creve Coeur Mill Road lies and would be removing a few of the development's buildings closest to that road. She was unaware, as well as distressed to learn, that the County instead plans to build behind her development. She didn't think other residents in her development knew this either. She indicated that she, as well as some of her neighbors, would sign the petition demanding an EIS.

We need to inform these people what the truth is.

St. Louis County doesn't need a 'Road to Nowhere'

Letter to the Editor of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, published 6/19/09

We are taxpayers and residents in West County, where St. Louis County and the Missouri Department of Transportation plan a new highway of four to six lanes from Ladue Road to the Maryland Heights Expressway. A recent editorial ripped the cover off the fiction that these two 1.7-mile road projects ever had anything to do with congestion. This is greed and laziness, plain and simple. Congratulations for accurate insight on the "Road to Nowhere."

It is the duty of MoDOT, St. Louis County traffic and our elected officials to watch out for our communities and support projects that maintain or increase our quality of life, not just fill the county coffers with money. Without even looking at other options to fix the problems along Woods Mill Road and Highway 141, they are expecting us to agree to having our homes, communities and green space blitzed for the roads; fork over $34 million per mile of new elevated road and two tunnels that do not have adequate, current environmental or financial analysis; and, inevitably, provide tax subsidies for their future "Mosquito Marsh Mall" down in the flood plains along Creve Coeur Mill Road and Maryland Heights Expressway.

In short, they want us to pay for their "progress" and build the road to it too.

Soon after, they'll expect a bailout when it inevitably floods and the "For Lease" signs overwhelm them. Why don't they just send us all an invoice and be done with it? Encourage re-development rather than new development; this would save money and local farms and showcase us as leaders of responsible development rather than government waste. We hope all readers who have had enough of irresponsible development will protest directly to St. Louis County and their own community city hall. Complain like a paying customer; that's what you are.

MoDot intends to extend highway 141 from Ladue road to the Page extension in west St. Louis county. The purpose of this extension is to encourage commercial development of land owned by the cities of Maryland Heights, Creve Coeur, and Chesterfield. MoDot's motivation for expansion is jobs for their people and increased tax revenue for the cities. The city's hope is that nonexistent businesses will want to locate in a flood plain in the very part of the country with the highest rate of economic decline.

Their traffic model constraints, variables, and assumptions are a joke.

Some development of highway 141 may be needed to alleviate traffic congestion, but MoDot has produced a massive, wasteful plan for highway expansion that will misuse 65 million dollars of taxpayer money.

There is a glut of available commercial real estate and high unemployment in St Louis.

Job losses in the automotive and aerospace industries have had a substantial and long lasting affect on the St. Louis economy. Those jobs are gone. They aren't coming back. There are no industries with the potential to replace those lost jobs in the near term.

St. Louisans are furious that money is being spent to create a massive west county outer loop that will do no more than destroy what little remains of the wetland and wildlife corridors in the area.

Why can't a more reasonable highway extension be built with less cost incurred? Why can't some of this money be put to good use creating jobs for the region? Many people in the area realize St. Louis is a great rear view mirror city. They are leaving for Texas, the east coast, even overseas. Work has already begun on this massive waste of taxpayer funds. St. Louisans watched half of the city of Bridgeton get wiped off the map to add a runway to Lambert airport when a runway was not needed. When will we ever learn?