Osage Beach, Mo. ? The summer playground for boaters across the Midwest could soon have an unwelcome neighbor: a limestone quarry next to a municipal sewage treatment plant.

Residents of Lake Ozark, Osage Beach and other towns surrounding the Lake of the Ozarks call Magruder Limestone’s proposed new mine off of U.S. 54 near the Osage River bridge a threat to not just the two towns’ shared sewage system but also the entire lake’s tourism industry.

“We’re not anti-business, we’re not anti-quarry,” said Ted Windels of Concerned Citizens of Miller and Camden Counties, a nonprofit group formed to fight the project. “We just don’t think this is the best place to put it.”

The Troy-based limestone company has received preliminary approval from the state Department of Natural Resources to build a mine on 205 acres in unincorporated Miller County. Final approval rests with the state Land Reclamation Commission.

Magruder’s permit application does not mention the adjacent treatment plant. The company’s proposal otherwise meets state requirements concerning air pollution, dust emissions, sediment and runoff control, said Larry Coen, director of the Department of Natural Resources’ land reclamation program.

Residents’ concerns spurred the land commission to schedule an administrative hearing for later this month in Osage Beach, with an April follow-up session in Jefferson City. The seven-member commission then meets in late May, although Coen said he doesn’t expect a decision before the board’s July session.

Water-quality issues will be addressed during those legal proceedings, Coen said. He noted that the land commission, by law, includes the director of the state’s Clean Water Commission.

Magruder Vice President Dean McDonald declined comment.

Project opponents worry that frequent blasting and heavy truck traffic on the gravel road leading to the mine could damage aboveground treatment tanks and underground water lines. The likely result: millions of gallons of raw sewage leaking into the Osage River, the lake and its watershed, and a sewer system malfunction that could cripple the local economy, they say.

“The sewer treatment plant is not the issue,” said Mike Atkisson, a former quarry manager who owns land next the Magruder site that he hopes to develop as a subdivision. “It’s the livelihood and the economy of the entire Lake of the Ozarks.”

On Thursday, more than 100 local residents crammed into an Osage Beach community room to discuss the proposed quarry. Among those in the crowd were state Rep. Robert Wayne Cooper, R-Camdenton, and Rep. Rodney Schad, R-Versailles.

Cooper said he has registered his opposition with Department of Natural Resources Director Doyle Childers, who the lawmaker said “is working behind the scenes to make this right.”

Sunrise Beach resident Al Bisogno described the ongoing fight waged by residents of the town on the lake’s western shore against another disruptive quarry – a site coincidentally purchased by Magruder 10 months ago. Bisogno described damaged seawalls, cracked foundations, polluted wells and noise and dust levels that have eroded the quality of life he sought after retiring as a Las Vegas detective.