Officials finalize beach plans for state park

Emerson meets with DNR, Doe Run at St. Joe Park

By PAULA BARR
Daily Journal Staff Writer

U.S. Rep. Jo Ann Emerson met with representatives of Missouri state parks, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Doe Run Company Tuesday at St. Joe Park to hear about planned improvements to two beaches.

Missouri Department of Natural Resources (DNR) Director Doyle Childers accompanied Emerson on a short tour of the park after a meeting at one of the shelters. Childers, Doe Run staff, EPA officials and members of the DNR’s parks division planned to meet after lunch to finalize details for the beach projects.

Plans call for placement of barriers on top of the tailings beaches at Monsanto and Pim lakes. The water permeable barriers will prevent the tailings from mixing with a foot or so of clean (lead-free) sand that will be laid on top of the current beach and pushed into the swimming area as far as possible. The barrier is tough enough to withstand digging with plastic beach shovels, said Jim Yancey, environmental specialist for the Division of State Parks.

“We think this will improve the usability of the beaches and will resolve any unanswered questions about lead,” he added.

The beach work at Monsanto Lake is part of a plan that calls for placement of seeded clean soil between the beach and the parking lot, and eventually will include sidewalks, a new shelter, handicapped-accessible ramps to the water for swimming and fishing, and a landscaped berm that will provide a barrier to the noise and dust from the Off Road Vehicle (ORV) area.

The Pim Lake beach already is partly covered with clean sand over a barricade. It will not take long to complete the rest of the beach project, Yancey said.

Childers said the Pim Lake project will begin soon after July 4. The Monsanto Lake project will take longer, and most likely will begin in August after school has started, he added.

Yancey said the plan is much less expensive than it would be to dig up all the tailings and replace them with clean sand.

A study showed that the lead content in the tailings at Monsanto Lake is about 480 parts per million, and at Pim Lake, the lead content is about 394 parts per million, Yancey said.

The parks department had hoped to start the beach project sooner, but the water level was too high due to heavy rains.

Emerson commented on the natural beauty of the area and urged parks officials to move forward with their plans as soon as possible.

St. Joe Park, located in Park Hills, has about 8,243 acres of land, including a 2,000-acre ORV park. Approximately 60,000 off-road vehicles use the park each year, and about 800,000 visitors come to the park annually for camping or for day use.

Paula Barr is a reporter for the Daily Journal and can be reached at 573-431-2010, ext. 172 or at pbarr@dailyjournalonline.com.





 

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