SUIT AGAINST WASTE PLANT IS IN PUBLIC'S INTEREST

Missouri Attorney General Jay Nixon had no other choice but to seek revocation of a Scott City hazardous-waste storage and treatment plant's state permit.

Nixon filed a lawsuit in Scott County Circuit Court alleging Millennium Environmental Services Inc. has committed serious violations of state hazardous-waste-management law.

At the urging of the Missouri Department of Natural Resources, he asked the court to impose a civil fine and make the company pay back fees due the state.

The fact that the owners face financial problems won't help the state's cause for back fees, but the suit should serve to protect the public from what apparently has been an unsafe operation for some time. The possibility the state will have to clean up the mess still looms in the future.