Four environmental groups in Missouri – the Coalition for the Environment, the Missouri Sierra Club, the American Bottom Convservancy and the Webster Groves Nature Study Society – have filed an appeal with the Missouri Air Conservation Commission against the air pollution permit granted to Holcim for its new US$600m St Genevieve cement plant. They commented the plant would worsen pollution of the St Louis region’s air and in the Mississippi River.

However, Holcim spokeswoman Nancy Tully responded that the company plans an environmentally efficient plant, a fact borne out by the state’s evaluation and approval of the project.