Popular Mo. ATV park to warn users about lead

ST. LOUIS (AP) - Starting next month, users of a state park in eastern Missouri will receive warnings about its unhealthy levels of lead.

St. Joe State Park outside Park Hills is a popular place for riding all-terrain vehicles and motorcycles. But it contains levels of lead that federal environmental regulators consider unhealthy.

Starting in January, the Missouri Department of Natural Resources will begin warning the park's 70,000 annual visitors about lead contamination at the park, which is located in the state's old lead belt south of St. Louis.

Park users will receive a lead advisory along with their permit to ride in the park, and trail maps.

"The idea behind the permits is to have something to put in people's hands," David Kelly, director of the state parks facility and visitor service program, told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. "People will know there's a lead advisory."

The state's updated Web site shows where lead sampl! ing has occurred and where they correspond to trails. Updated warnings will be posted on billboards near the park's main entrance.

Thirty years ago, the St. Joe Minerals Corp. donated land for the park. Half of the 2,000 acres set aside for off-road riding are contaminated with lead mining waste.

In November, the Missouri Department of Health and Human Services encouraged DNR to limit access to areas of lead concentration above a certain level, and to post warnings and encourage the use of wash stations in the park.

The federal Environmental Protection Agency has proposed work at the park as part of the larger Big River Superfund site spanning 110 square miles in the lead belt. That includes covering trail sections with uncontaminated material, removing tailings that erode into Big River and improving vegetation in areas not used by off-road vehicles.

Some St. Francois County residents and frequent park users complained that cleanup would block acces! s of their off-road vehicles.

___

Information from: St. Lo uis Post-Dispatch, http://www.stltoday.com