ST. LOUIS AUDUBON SOCIETY

RESOLUTION ON CHURCH MOUNTAIN PUMPED STORAGE PROJECT

WHEREAS, The St. Louis Audubon Society is a local chapter of the National Audubon Society whose mission is to conserve and restore natural ecosystems, focusing on birds, other wildlife, and their habitats for the benefit of humanity and the earth's biological diversity; and,

WHEREAS, the Missouri Department of Natural Resources (DNR) Division of State Parks assembled more than 15,000 acres in Taum Sauk Mountain State Park and additions to Johnson's Shut-Ins State Park from dozens of private landowners in the early 1990's at a cost of nearly $3 million connecting to an equal acreage of high quality Conservation Department and U.S. Forest Service land running from Taum Sauk peak in the east to the Bell Mountain Wilderness in the west, for the purpose of protecting a representative sample of the high peaks region of the St. Francois Mountains at the geologic core of the Ozarks, maintaining and restoring biodiversity on a landscape scale, and providing wilderness-type recreation for the general public; and

WHEREAS, the interagency Missouri Natural Areas Committee has designated more than 7,000 acres of the highest quality land in this area as the St. Francois Mountains Natural Area, the largest natural area in the state, and the Missouri Clean Water Commission has designated the upper 5.5 miles of Taum Sauk Creek as a State Outstanding Resource Water; and

WHEREAS, the Ameren Development Company, a subsidiary of Ameren Corporation (parent of AmerenUE, formerly Union Electric), has filed an application for a preliminary permit with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) for the Church Mountain Pumped Storage Project, which would consist of a 130-acre reservoir ringed by a 12,350-foot-long 90-foot-high dam on top of Church Mountain, a 400-acre lower reservoir formed by a 1900-foot-long 100-foot-high dam on Taum Sauk Creek, and appurtenant facilities; and

WHEREAS, the proposed lower reservoir would flood approximately two miles of the Taum Sauk Creek State Outstanding Resource Water, most of which is included within the St. Francois Mountains Natural Area, obliterating its natural riparian zone; and

WHEREAS, the proposed project with its development and continued activity, including daily fluctuating water levels of perhaps fifteen feet, would result in major fragmentation and degradation of an ecosystem preserved at great investment by the public specifically to prevent further fragmentation and degradation and to preserve a remnant of the wild St. Francois Mountain landscape; and

WHEREAS, Union Electric (now AmerenUE) has in the past shown public spirit and a willingness to cooperate with public agencies, notably in the granting of a 25-year lease to DNR for park trail development on its Church Mountain property adjacent to Taum Sauk State Park;

NOW THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the St. Louis Audubon Society strongly opposes the proposed Church Mountain Pumped Storage Project and calls on Missouri citizens and local, state, and federal officials to express their views to FERC, the governor, and Ameren on the natural, cultural and recreational values at stake in the Taum Sauk area; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the St. Louis Audubon Society communicate to Ameren officials its assessment of the values at stake in the Taum Sauk area and encourage them to reconsider their plans for a pumped storage facility on Church Mountain, offering to help seek a resolution to the issue that is not only in the best public interest, but will eliminate any threats to the biological integrity of this area's natural ecosystem.

Adopted by the Board of Directors at the August 7, 2001 meeting.