Environment

Kansas City, MO – Environmental officials have announced that sludge from a St. Joseph Tannery does not in fact pose any public health hazard. A recent lawsuit had alleged a link between several brain tumors in area residents and the tannery sludge.

Kansas City – Administrator Lisa Jackson's trip to Kansas City is mainly promotional, meant to encourage citizens to take more individual responsibility for cleaning up the environment. But, there the agency is taking a close look at the Kansas City area both as a place with problems to be solved, and as one that could stand as a national model.

Lenexa, Kansas – After testimony from dozens of angry Johnson County residents, the Park Board voted unanimously to approve a report that recommends sharpshooters and archers be used to cull the deer population in Shawnee Mission Park. Officials say there are roughly four hundred deer in park, eight times more than the park can sustain.

Many residents have testified that they think it would be immoral to carry out a controlled hunt to limit the deer population in Shawnee Mission Park. Others say it isn't necessary.

Shawnee Mission, Kansas – Driving the rolling roads of Shawnee Mission Park's two square miles isn't as serene as it used to be. On summer evenings at dusk, traffic and rowdy kids populate the roads as deer graze quietly nearby. A recent Park Board report says that killing some of the deer is the most effective and economical solution to the overpopulation problem. Johnson County's Park Board holds a public hearing on the matter.

Kansas City, MO – Residents say the highways and railroads cutting through the neighborhood are just the beginning of the area's environmental problems. So when Kansas City Power & Light recently unveiled plans for a new electrical substation on the Westside, some residents started mounting opposition. The plan was narrowly approved by the City Plan Commission this week and should go before the City Council, but KCP&L says it will take a step back and talk to neighborhood residents. KCUR's Sylvia Maria Gross recently went by to find out more.

Parkville, Mo. – Chief among April 27th flash flood damage in Platte County was destruction of more than a hundred feet of retaining wall, ripping loose from a sixty foot tall hillside. KCUR'S Dan Verbeck reports.