Despite plenty of opposition, Mississippi Sand will be able to ship out sand from a barge terminal along Route 71 in Ottawa.
Without a single comment, the Ottawa City Council last night approved a zoning change, conditional use permit and annexation agreement with Archer Daniels Midland to add on to their existing property along the south side of the Illinois River in order to ship out silica sand. Mayor Bob Eschbach again said that the sand will be shipped somewhere and this option is better than having trucks hauling the sand thru downtown Ottawa to an ADM barge terminal on the east end of town.
Eschbach did tell sand mine opponents that he’s willing to speak to a professor in Wisconsin who has done studies about air quality around silica sand mines.