“Life in Southern Missouri can be pretty simple, but it can also get awfully complex. 

Environmental extremists, led by the Sierra Club, take a great deal of pride in falling on their swords for animal species while human beings suffer.

The most recent example of their illogical interference in quality of life issues for Missourians is taking place in Reynolds and Iron Counties, where local officials are working their tails off to get Ameren UE to rebuild the Taum Sauk hydroelectric reservoir.  As far as I can tell, their reasoning for opposing this project is twofold.  First, that the proximity of the dam to the park would be dangerous when the once-in-a-lifetime collapse of the dam occurs again.  Let me tell you, we have been down that road once, and people nearly lost their lives.  A new, state-of-the-art reservoir at Taum Sauk, built to today’s ironclad safety codes and regularly inspected by FERC, would pose no such concerns.

The second concern is one they don’t like to talk about, but is nearer to their hearts – they oppose pretty much any enhancement to the quality of life for regular people which disrupts the pristine natural landscape of rural America.  This concern doesn’t really affect the Sierra Club, which is headquartered in the metropolis of San Francisco, or the Missouri Coalition for the Environment in St. Louis.  You can build a hydroelectric plant there and they’ll pin a medal on you for creating clean energy.  But in Southern Missouri, far from their fundraising galas, where a tiny fraction of their dues-paying members live, they consider any infringement on animals or plants a crime against the planet.

Environmental extremists forget that people live here, too.

 
The reconstruction of the Taum Sauk reservoir means jobs while it’s being built and millions of dollars in tax base when it’s finished.  In counties of less than 10,000 Missourians each, Ameren’s activities mean more than a stable source of economical energy – the dam means substantial funding for road improvements, emergency services, and – most of all – education. 

These quality of life issues are fundamental concerns for those who want the dam rebuilt, but environmental extremists couldn’t care less.

They also couldn’t care less about the people and property under the protection of levees along the Mississippi River.  Floods are seldom even good for wildlife, but are devastating when you’re going to school in a raft or on the back of a tractor-trailer.  The communities of Pinhook and East Prairie are living with 1930's-era flood prevention while those in most other areas of the Eighth District are well-protected.

So let me get the extremists’ logic straight, floods are dangerous to people in some parts of Missouri, but lives and property don’t matter in others?

Farmland and crops sure took a backseat to wildlife when environmentalists insisted on flooding the Missouri River last year so the pallid sturgeon could mate.  I shudder to think what that mess would have looked like had it happened before the floods this Spring.

The projects at Taum Sauk and along the Mississippi River are both very responsible ones that add a great deal to the public safety of citizens here in Southern Missouri while also prioritizing environmental concerns.  The dam and the levee construction would seek a balance between human life and livelihood on the one side, and habitat and the environment on the other.  But balance is a concept the environmental extremists don’t understand – they want to protect endangered species at the expense of endangering humans.

With or without the Taum Sauk reservoir, there is one thing I know is true: the photos of Southern Missouri must look great on the office wall in a San Francisco high rise.”