Attorney General's News Release

January 16, 2008

Stone Canyon developers must track methane migration, stop residential construction under judgment obtained by Nixon

Independence, Mo. — The developers of The Links at Stone Canyon, a residential and golf course project in Independence, must stop residential construction and take immediate steps to investigate and control the migration of methane and other subsurface gases, Attorney General Jay Nixon says.

Nixon obtained a partial consent judgment and preliminary injunction which he says was necessary because of concerns about gas from the development, which is being built by The Links at Stone Canyon Inc., Sailors-Woods Development LLC and T.E. Woods Construction Inc. on the site of two now-closed sanitary landfills. The order was signed by Jackson County Circuit Judge Marco Roldan on Tuesday (Jan. 15).

“There are serious and legitimate concerns about methane or other gases leaving the site of this old landfill site because of the construction taking place there and posing a hazard to human health because of their explosive nature,” Nixon says. “This order requires appropriate measures to be taken to assess the level of risk and to control the migration of gas.”

Part of the order requires the developers to initiate a methane gas investigation of a nearby sewer line that runs toward Sunny Pointe Elementary and Sunny Vale Middle schools. They also must install a permanent methane gas monitoring well in the sewer line along the eastern-most edge of the property where the landfills once were. If the investigation reveals methane gas level above those permitted by state regulation, the developers must notify school officials, the local fire department and the Missouri Department of Natural Resources.

Nixon says the developers must obtain written approval from the DNR or the court for each phase of the development and implementation of plans for investigating and controlling subsurface landfill gases within the property covered by the landfill permits.

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