Decision expected soon on lead prospecting in forest

VIBURNUM, Mo. -- With its often breathtaking terrain and popular rivers, this region might be Missouri's best kept secret from the rest of the world.

Here, behind a thick curtain of evergreens, Doe Run Co. hopes to begin drilling for lead beneath the floor of the Mark Twain National Forest.

The U.S. Forest Service is considering whether the company should be allowed to drill up to 232 holes in the forest, a decision expected in the next few weeks.

Doe Run is trying to find new sources of lead along the Viburnum Trend, a 40-mile stripe of lead ore found in 1955. The trend has the world's largest known concentration of the mineral galena, or lead sulfide. All the lead now produced in Missouri -- accounting for about 80 percent of the nation's production -- comes from that trend, to be used for car batteries and X-ray shields, among other uses.

Critics say the prized public land should be left alone, and warn that the Bush administration is relatively friendly toward extracting resources from such places.

In many ways the Ozarks are Missouri's playground: The region's river system, fed by an abundance of natural springs, offers up plenty of worthy floating and fishing. Hills here don't so much roll as leap and drop, shaping perhaps the most impressive scenery in the state.

Town started with mining

Right in the middle of it lies Viburnum and its 825 people. Like many towns in the nation's top lead-producing state, Viburnum's existence begins with mining. St. Joseph Lead Co., which would later become Doe Run, arrived in the 1950s and planned the city's roads itself. While some mining workers live in Viburnum, most of the residents work for the schools, shops and other services in the region that support the industry.

The economy here is not thriving. Unemployment in the region varies from 7 to 11 percent, and much of it is covered in national forest, land that doesn't help the local tax base.

"If it wasn't for the local mining industry and the taxes they pay and the local businesses that support it, you'd be driving in here on gravel roads," said Lance Mayfield, an insurance salesman currently serving as president of Viburnum's city council. "There'd be no reason for people to be here."

Mayfield, whose family has lived in the area for six generations, was careful to say that he's no friend of the mining industry, which once fired him after he helped lead a strike against St. Joseph Lead. But he's no friend of environmentalists either. He said both Doe Run and groups like the Sierra Club hold extreme views on the drilling issue, while most area residents fall somewhere in between.

"My personal opinion is it's all about balance," Mayfield said. "There's certain risk with your natural resources when you drill it or change it. But what is the risk compared to the potential gain?"

Few are concerned that drilling in a handful of locations would cause lasting harm to the environment. There are several old drill-holes around Viburnum, and they're rarely visible unless one stands right over them.

'Jewels of the Ozarks'

It's what comes after drilling that bothers critics, among them Missouri Attorney General Jay Nixon.

"They wouldn't explore if they didn't want to mine," said Nixon, who has long opposed plans to allow more drilling in Mark Twain. "These are our national forest and scenic riverways, where mining could cause great damage to the watershed. These are the jewels of the Ozarks."

Doe Run spokeswoman Barb Shepard said that if drilling is approved, mining is far from inevitable. Even if the company finds enough lead to warrant a new mine, which she said is likely, it must then begin the long process of applying for a lease.

Even the mining itself is unlikely to cause extensive harm to the ecosystem, said Tom Clevenger, an environmental chemistry expert at the University of Missouri-Columbia. As ore, lead poses little threat to the river system, he said.