By Bill Raack/AP
St. Louis – Four environmental groups are asking the Missouri Air Conservation Commission to revoke an air pollution permit for a cement plant project in St Genevieve County.
The appeal filed Wednesday is aimed at stopping Switzerland-based Holcim Incorporated from building the 600 million-dollar plant on the Mississippi River, about 40 miles south of St. Louis.
The company says the facility will be the most environmentally efficient such plant in the country.
But Ted Heisel, with the Missouri Coalition for the Environment, disagrees.
"In other states, Holcim has come in and made great promises to state agencies about the level of emissions that could achieve and those promises have not been lived up to," Heisel said.
In June, the state issued the last major permit necessary for construction of the Holcim plant, which would be the largest in North America.