Speakers blast Ameren plan for ash landfill in Missouri River floodplain

Apr 9 - Jacob Barker St. Louis Post-Dispatch

 

Speaker after speaker drew applause Tuesday night as they railed against Ameren Missouri's plan for a coal ash landfill along the banks of the Missouri River.

For Ameren, the packed Knights of Columbus meeting hall in Washington, Mo., was not a friendly audience. Only one person out of more than 100 present spoke in favor of the utility's plan to build a landfill to store the ash waste produced by its Labadie power plant -- the largest in its generation fleet.

For years, nearby residents and environmental groups have fought Ameren's proposal, warning that its location in the river's floodplain was a recipe for disaster. Tuesday night's hearing, required by Missouri Department of Natural Resources before it issues a building permit, was one of the last formal settings to voice their fears.

"In our lives, we have seen many times when that river has run wild," said Franklin County resident Richard Stetters. "We need more floodplain, not less."

Many residents pointed to recent coal ash spills, especially the February disaster when coal ash from Duke Energy power plants coated the Dan River in North Carolina with toxic sludge.

Ameren has said it intends to build a berm to withstand a 500-year flood and line the landfill with concrete to prevent groundwater contamination. Further, its proposed landfill would mix the ash with clay and create a dry surface with a "very small absorption rate," said Warren Wood, the utility's vice president of regulatory and legislative affairs.

Disasters such as the one in North Carolina, Wood said, "are clear illustrations of exactly why this state-of-the-art facility should be built."

Many residents urged the DNR to hold off on issuing a permit until the Environmental Protection Agency releases new rules late this year on coal ash disposal. Other states are slowing down in the wake of the high-profile spills, said Patricia Schuba, who leads the local Labadie Environmental Organization.

"Other states are taking heed, and I think here in Missouri we deserve nothing less than that," she said.

The DNR has already performed a site evaluation and determined it is appropriate for the landfill, Wood said, and putting it somewhere else will only drive up the cost. Ameren estimates 160 truckloads of ash would be hauled off-site, and after it installs new scrubbers in the plant, that will rise to 200 truckloads and cost millions of dollars a year.

Still, many residents said the floodplain site was not worth the risk. "Nobody here is saying anything about there not being coal ash somewhere," said Eric Reichert, a 35-year resident of Franklin County. "But not in the floodway."

If it obtains the DNR permit, Ameren hopes to begin construction on the landfill this summer and complete it in 2016. Environmental groups have one more chance to stymie the effort. They have filed an appeal with the Franklin County Planning and Zoning Commission, which will consider the appeal later this month.

Jacob Barker is a business reporter at the Post-Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter @jacobbarker and the Business section @postdispatchbiz.

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