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House committee begins investigation of state park land purchase in Oregon County

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – The executive director of the Department of Natural Resources and House Republicans clashed at the inaugural hearing of the Interim Investigative Committee on State Park Creation Monday.

The committee was quickly formed to respond to the uproar surrounding a decision to use some of the money granted in a settlement in Southeast Missouri to buy a plot of land in Oregon County for a state park.

Sara Pauly, the executive director of MDNR, defended the decision, stating that she believed the department had the legal right to purchase the land since the settlement with ASARCO LLC is based on the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA), also known as Superfund. That federal statute states the settlement money must be spent to restore, replace or acquire the equivalent of those natural resources that were damaged. The last of those three choices is called compensatory restoration, which involves acquiring an off-site location that fits under the same ecological guidelines in order to either maintain it or perform less intensive restoration.

While the property is in Oregon County, Pauly said that, it and the impacted areas in Southeast Missouri both belong to an ecological region called the Ozark Highlands, due to similar geological, hydrological and biological features.

“The settlement says the monies needed to be spent at or in connection with the sites that damages were collected under,” Pauly said. “The language is absolutely in line with what CERCLA requires and encourages.”

However, Committee Chair Jay Barnes, R-Jefferson City, disputed that the settlement actually gave the department as much leeway as Pauly claimed. Barnes argued the settlement’s explicit use of the term “restoration” prevented the department from acquiring lands with the settlement funds.

“Maybe it was poorly drafted, maybe not, but it says what it says,” he stated.

Barnes, as well as Rep. Robert Ross, R-Texas County, were the most vocal opponents of the measure on the committee. Ross and Rep. Craig Redmon, R-Canton, expressed concern that the department wanted to buy more land to maintain when they already ask for more funds for existing state parks, and Ross wanted to know how much land would have to be converted into state parks to satisfy the department.

Rep. Kevin Engler, R-Farmington, said he did not oppose using funds to buy and preserve new land, but that using funds intended to help Southeast Missouri would be used three hours away in Oregon County.

“I have a problem with the methodology, with the process,” he said. “I would feel a lot more comfortable if this money was being used for land acquisitions, if we knew what was going on in the rest of Southeast Missouri… as long as we’ve done our job in these affected areas.”

Barnes’ primary concern stemmed from the fact that the affected communities of the ASARCO lead mining operations in Southeast Missouri have not yet seen compensation.

“What about the people in the counties that were actually affected? They live in counties that were awarded funds for environmental damages that happened in those counties. What does it say to the people in those counties that Gov. Nixon thinks it’s appropriate to take their money away from them? It says he does not care about the people in the affected areas.”

Pauly said that the Environmental Protection Agency and the federal government, while performing quick work in affected areas in Southwest Missouri, had been slow to act in Southeast Missouri.

Regardless, Barnes essentially promised that legislation to be proposed by Sen. Mike Cunningham, R-Rogersville , would essentially make any purchase of land in Oregon County a moot point.

“If the department and the trustees purchase the land in Oregon County, it is a virtual certainty that Sen. Cunningham’s bill requiring the department to turn around and sell it will pass,” Barnes said. “Gov. Nixon will veto it, and as has happened a record number of times in his tenure as governor, the legislature will override his veto. If the trustees go down this path, all they are doing is just throwing money away.”