• KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) -- Federal efforts to create thousands of acres of shallow-water Missouri River habitat to help an endangered fish species have been backlogged nearly six years in the waterway's namesake state because of an ongoing dispute about where to dump excavated dirt.
• The situation is so dire that only a fraction of the habitat has been built. The issue recently came to a head when a Missouri agency took the unusual step of refusing to act on a permit request for a long-stalled project, raising new questions about what will happen next in the effort to provide a refuge for young pallid sturgeon and other native species. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is considering its options while farm groups are vowing continued opposition.
• "The state thumbed its nose at the corps," complained project backer Ken Midkiff, chair of the Missouri Clean Water Campaign, a project of the National Sierra Club.
• At issue is the corps' effort to recreate about 20,000 acres of slow-moving shallow-water habitat -- about 20 percent of the approximately 100,000 acres of shallow-water habitat that disappeared when the river was dammed and straightened and its channel narrowed. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service ordered the corps to undertake the habitat effort in 2003 because, while changes to the river aided navigation and improved flood protection, the pallid sturgeon population has dwindled. That puts at risk the future of a dinosaur-era relic that can live more than 50 years and weigh up to 80 pounds.
• The conflict has centered on what to do with the dirt excavated to create the new habitat. Farm groups don't want the fertilizer-laden soil dumped into the river, as happens in many of the projects, saying they'll get the blame when it causes environmental problems and that Missouri is spending millions to keep it out of the river.
• "If they try dumping dirt, we plan to sue," threatened Bob Perry, general manager of Perry Agricultural Laboratory Inc. in Bowling Green. "They usually blame agriculture for this pollution. But they are going to dump this soil right in the river."
• However, proponents, including the corps and environmental groups, say researchers have determined the soil dumping won't cause trouble and note the pallid sturgeon evolved to live in large silt-filled rivers. Before the upstream dams and reservoirs were built, the Missouri River was far muddier.
• As a result of the debate, only about 3,500 acres of shallow-water habitat have been constructed so far. Much of it has been built in Kansas, Nebraska and Iowa,

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