By Elizabeth VanCamp, Davenport
A Quad Cities developer named Matt Stern (of A Hana Illowa LLC) is working with the city of Rock Island, IL (a city that faces Davenport, IA across the Mississippi River) to add a truck stop and dispensary to a 10-acre parcel of land on the edge of a 528-acre wetland called the Milan Bottoms. But this isn’t an ordinary wetland: it’s the largest nighttime bald eagle roosting site in the lower 48 (there can be upwards of 700 to 800 bald eagles some nights). Additionally, it houses at least four threatened and endangered species, including Blanding’s turtles and whooping cranes.
Construction at the Milan Bottoms risks oil leaks during construction; habitat destruction for plants, animals, and insects; gas leaks into the soil, groundwater, and the surrounding wetland; air pollution from semi-trucks and cars driving through an area that’s previously been kept completely wild; and light pollution that will make the area uninhabitable for bald eagles, other bird species, and several bat species.
Milan Bottoms routinely floods — as is normal for a floodplain — so there will be guaranteed water pollution during future floods as oil and other pollutants wash off from the parking lot or when underground gas tankers leak. It is very common knowledge that if you alter wetlands, particularly those that serve as floodplains, the water has to go somewhere. Properties nearby Milan Bottoms will be impacted when the water suddenly lacks a wetland to flow into. Additionally, with so few wild and untouched places left in the Midwest, it seems absolutely senseless to develop an area as precious as the Milan Bottoms, especially when the city of Rock Island has plenty of other areas available for commercial development.
The people of Rock Island and the other QC cities have consistently spoken out against this development project, speaking for the bald eagles and asking the important questions about costs, benefits, and potential financial and environmental risks (and how these may fall on RI taxpayers). However, the city has provided very little information about how this project will be beneficial to RI citizens in the long run.
They continue to move forward with the project in hopes of keeping Rock Island afloat, thanks to a $3 million budget deficit. The city council has ignored the voices and protests of its citizens for almost a year now. Clearly, they won’t be swayed by reason or science or protests, but we won’t stop talking about this. Too many wild places have already been paved over and developed, evicting the current inhabitants — the bald eagles, the Blanding’s turtles, the thousands of insects — without care for the long-term impact of doing so. Even if we can’t get people to care about the wildlife who call Milan Bottoms home, perhaps we can get people to care about a city ignoring its citizens in order to pursue a hypothetical fix for their budget problems that will almost certainly lead to property damage, negative effects on human health, and financial costs to Rock Island citizens.
Humans have already developed over so many wetlands and precious wildlife habitats, and it would be disappointing if yet another wild space was disrupted because of greed. The citizens of RI should not have to bear the weight of the city’s budget deficit in the forms of increased gas emissions, decreased biodiversity, and increased air, water, sound, and light pollution, let alone the financial costs associated with something going wrong with the project.
RI can do better than this; they could find a better location for a gas station and dispensary, especially since the developer claims to be inspired by his mother’s passion for preserving the environment and has been lauded for his “vision and commitment… to reignite Rock Island as an innovative trend setter” by the River Cities’ Reader. It would also be in the city’s best interest to find a new location, since this development project would surely violate the Bald Eagle and Golden Eagle Protection Act with its close proximity to eagle nests and the incredible amount of light pollution the company’s 125′ tall lighted sign will cause.
