DECISON REVERSAL

Week before last, the Missouri Conservation Commission reversed an earlier decision to allow prospecting for minerals on state land in the Ozarks. The vote was 4-0 and came without comment at the commission meeting, which was held in Kennett.

St. Louis-based Doe Run Co. had sought permits to look for lead, copper and zinc on 7,000 acres in Shannon and Reynolds counties. The land is scattered around Eminence, near the confluence of the Current and Jacks Fork rivers. Much of the land is undeveloped and was purchased in 1991 by The Nature Conservancy from Kerr-McGee Corp., and then sold to the conservation department. At the time, both the Conservancy and the state cobservation department described the land as one of the richest ecosystems in the Midwest.

The Sierra Club and the Coalition for the Environment had filed a lawsuit alleging that the commission's original decision was taken at a meeting that violated the state's open meetings law. The groups say the commission didn't list the issue on its agenda and didn't give advance notice. It is likely the suit will now be dropped.

It is rare when an agency of government basically admits that an earlier decision was unwise and reverses itself. The commission is to be commended for looking at all the facts and having the courage to pull back from a policy that might have threatened an environmentally-sensitive area.