Should off-road use be curtailed at St. Joe State Park?
Thousands of people now ride, hike and camp at Missouri’s St. Joe State Park in Park Hills, Mo., the former lead mining site, about 55 miles south of St. Louis.
But nearly 30 years after it was converted into a recreational park, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has raised new questions about letting the public play in the mine’s gritty leftovers.
It’s a dusty, gritty place in areas where all-terrain vehicles are allowed. For most of the past 30 years, park users have been stirring up the sandy, dusty mine tailings that the EPA says are left over from lead mining days.
A story in Monday’s Post-Dispatch reports that last week, the EPA urged the Missouri Department of Natural Resources to move off-road vehicle riding away from the flats during the next several years and to better warn park visitors of the threat of lead mine waste, which makes up about 1,000 of the park’s 8,200 acres.
According to the EPA report:
Soil and dust samplings in 2002 found lead levels as high as 4,638 parts per million in the beach area where children play and swim, and up to 1,563 parts per million in the riding area, according to government reports.
Both are above levels that would trigger an EPA cleanup if they were found to be that high in a residential yard.
State parks officials want to keep the sand flats open to off-road vehicles, mostly ATVs and dirt bikes. Hundreds of riders descend on the park most nonwinter weekends to ride on the flats, or the forested upland trails.
But some say the risks don’t outweigh the benefits of keeping the popular sand flats open.
Others say that the land should have never been given to the state and opened as a state park.
âIt’s toxic mining waste,” said Tom Kruzen, a Sierra Club volunteer and longtime critic of the lead industry. He added that the questions being posed by the EPA are long overdue.
Should a big portion of the state park — 1,000 of the total 8,200 acres — be closed to off-road vehicles in an effort to protect residents from high lead levels?
The EPA has proven itself untrustworthy in its dealing with other environmental health risks. We should be slow to use its assessments of lead exposure hazards to close any portion of the park.
If these clowns want to ride their ATVs and dirt bikes in a freaking lead mine, risking lead poisoning,let them. I’d rather see these mental giants riding there then in the rivers and streams.
Wow, Lew, are you sure you want an answer to that question?
Riding should not only be allowed in the area, it should be required for all liberals. Lead in the brain could do nothing but good for many of the liberal posters in your blog forums.
Got any more questions that I can answer this morning?
I truly feel the need to stop people from doing what they want by choice
has run it’s course. The people can decide if they should go to this park and ride not someone or some group. As mentioned in the article
thousands love and use this park for over three decades. Liberal groups
tree huggers and people who have nothing else to do stay away and manage
yourself - not others !
A State Park at a lead mine? Are they outta their minds? Perhaps an investigation into the ne’er-do-wells that allowed this to happen which of course is our glorious state politicians catering to local politicians catering to idiots with ATV’s. On the other hand, if people are that stupid to ride ATV’s at a lead mine, maybe they deserve the diseases from eating lead dust. Bon Apetite.
Jom (and everyone else)
You should really become more familiar with Missouri’s recreational opportunities that have been around FOR DECADES before you feign shock and dismay over this latest scare piece. I’m mean, where’s your outrage over the shenanigans in Bonne Terre?
Its nice that the EPA expressed their findings about the park and is trying to make riders aware of the issue, but they should not have a say in shutting down the park. And if they do, where is the park going to be relocated? You can’t just shut it down and not give another option, this place has been open for decades. Plus, look at the revenue this park generates on a weekend, have you been there lately? This is probably the nicest park in the state, and not only is the EPA affecting ATV riders. This impacts campers, hikers, swimmers, bicyclist, Radio controlled flyers, horse back riders, and other outdoor sports. Pollution is part of everyday and people have learned to deal with it, isn’t Monday trash day?
Where is pollution greater? I-270 or St. Joe Park; Mississippi River or St. Joe Park; Second hand smoke or St. Joe Park? I don’t think you can say St. Joe Park in any of these comparisons.
Don’t judge the Park until you have been their and enjoyed the activities, when you do that you will realize how lucky we are to have these places and have the freedom to do whatever we want. I don’t tell the government how to run their lives, and I don’t want them to tell me how to run mine.
Take a look http://www.stjoepark.com
Thanks, Stanley Frank! Exactly what I wanted to say.
And I really doubt, johnh, that any significant percentage of ATV enthusiasts is liberal. Liberals tend to respect the environment, and hope that others would do the same.
Have a nice day!
You can warn people of the lead issue.
Maybe they will care maybe they wont.
Adults can make their own decisions about if their health is more important then having a good time.
Now if they have their kids with them that is a different story.
As current events have proven some parents cant alwasy be bothered to think of their kids first.
So maybe restricting it to adults only?