I have a question

[bryantsmallie28]

OK so im driving down 5 highway in between ava and mansfield and cross bryant creek and look up the creek and to my surprise there is a dozer in the middle of the creek in the water with the gravel piled up in the center of the creek. And i have heard different stuff on gravel mining in intermittent streams and stuff but this runs year round. it is totally spring fed and I have never seen it dry. This creek has always had the channel on the west side of the creek. Well when i went by yesterday they had just moved all the gravel to the west side and dug a straight gravel walled channel on the east side. I don't know if this is legal or not but i dont see how this can be right at all, and i really dont see how any good can come of this. There was a lot of erosion on the west side that was moving toward some big ponds that used to be a fish hatchery, but i can see a lot better ways to stop erosion than getting a dozer in the middle of the creek and moving everythig around and disturbing the whole creek bottom. To me it seems like this is oging to do nothing but let all this gravel wash down the stream when the creek gets up and fill in a bunch of holes down below and make a disappearing creek disappear even faster. I was just seeing what everyone's opinion was on this and wondering if there was any good in this, and if i should try to call someone and report this or something. wow that was long, but I was really riled up over this and then talked to a friend and he was riled up about it too, and i thought id see what some other peopel thought about it.

[Phil Lilley]

Call DNR and report it. I don't know if it's legal either but it's worth the call.

[Brian K. Shaffer]

Did you ever see what happened at Crooked Creek in ARK ? This sounds very similar. Dave and Emily Whitlock did as much as any one could do to stop the future mining.. but Guy King and Sons (the miner)made money for years during the well-alinged protest. I am not even sure what happened with all that.

Sorry to hear of what is going on.. Brian

[Brian Sloss]

Definitely call DNR and see if it is legal. If it is and you want to stop it, I'll sign the petition. Also, check with groups like trout unlimited and the smallmouth allience to get their 2 cents. They may be able to help or at least point you in the right direction.

[Wayne SW/MO]

This was an issue back in 2004, and I can't exactly remember all the details except that a weak DNR combined with an all out assault by the Farm Bureau, with the help of Sarah Steelman, pretty much watered down what the MDC, Alliance and others wanted. The opposition didn't want gravel mining ended, just controlled in a manner that protected the streambeds, but...........?

Al Agnew is well acquainted with the details and I'm sure he can fill us in when he see's this.

[bryantsmallie28]

Well i was just wondering. This isnt a gravel mining issue i dont think. I havent really went down and looked at it. It may have been something authorized but to me it just looked like someone who tried to save a pond by hiring a dozer to go in and move all the gravel to the other side without thinking if there was anything else to do.

[Gavin]

Sounds awful...I'd take some pictures and send them to DNR. Cheers.

[Al Agnew]

Don't hold your breath waiting for something to be done about it. The gravel mining rules are still in flux, since nobody can really agree on how weak to make them, but suffice it to say that they are gonna be pretty weak. And...although at one time you COULD have gotten whoever was doing it in trouble with the Corps of Engineers (who WOULD reluctantly put a stop to it), a lawsuit brought on by the Farm Bureau and others resulted in a court ruling that the Corps wasn't responsible for stream channel alterations anymore, instead the MODNR was. DNR is practically useless, since the legislature (led by Sarah Steelman when she was there, among others) has pretty much gutted whatever funding DNR once had for enforcing ANY regulations. Last I heard, DNR had 5 inspectors for the whole state that had responsibility for stream channel alteration issues (among lots of other duties), so even if you report it, chances are nobody will get around to investigating it until it's much too late, if at all.

As you can guess, this is a real sore spot with me. The mid-level and lower people at DNR are serious about taking better care of the streams, but their hands are tied by a legislature that looks upon ANY rules and regulations as Satan's doing...this isn't just a tight budget issue--the legislature as presently composed wouldn't give a dime for enforcement of environmental regulations even if they were flush with cash. It's only the things that are political dynamite or that danged near everybody in the whole state would scream bloody murder about, like state parks and the Taum Sauk disaster, that get any real attention from the legislature and thus DNR.

Sure, go ahead and contact DNR about it. The squeaky wheel gets the grease. But it's going to take a lot of squeaking to get anything done about stuff like this.

[claud]

make one of your petitions or protest in the head city(of jefferson). things that can make progress such as these could not be done in cyprus, here they can and should be utilized.

[Phil Lilley]

I passed this on to Dave Woolery, Ombudsman for DNR. Some of the guys from DNR were then made aware of the situation thru this thread but no one called in any reports of the incident...and it doesn't look like anything was done (by DNR).

If you see something like this, call DNR. We can complain about DRN and other authorities all we want but if WE don't get involved and report violations, we're just as much to blame.