Height of proposed Ameren coal ash landfill is at issue

May 28 - Jacob Barker St. Louis Post-Dispatch

 

The toxicity of coal ash and whether it will seep into groundwater weren't up for debate in the latest confrontation between environmental groups and Ameren Missouri. The question before a Franklin County board was whether the utility's proposed coal ash landfill is 2 feet above the natural water table.

That's what Franklin County zoning regulations require, and that's what opponents of Ameren Missouri's plan for a utility waste landfill say was violated when the county in 2012 approved a zoning amendment allowing the landfill's construction.

A circuit judge upheld the zoning, as did an appeals court, but opponents were before Franklin County's own Board of Zoning Adjustment Tuesday night to argue their case again.

Citing documents Ameren has submitted to the Missouri Department of Natural Resources for a construction permit, Ameren's opponents maintained the utility's own monitoring data indicates groundwater is at an elevation of 464 feet -- above the lowest point of Ameren's landfill at 463 feet.

Numbers the company has come up with are nothing more than "litigation numbers to make it look like Ameren's landfill is not in the groundwater," said Maxine Lipeles, co-director of Washington University's Interdisciplinary Environmental Clinic.

Franklin County's engineering consultant, however, called the county's zoning ordinance "vague" because the water table fluctuates based on the level of the Missouri River. Based on an average analysis Andrews Engineering performed using Ameren Missouri's data, it determined the water level is an average of 457 feet.

An Ameren-commissioned analysis says the normal water table is actually 459 feet and that the water level naturally fluctuates and the landfill is designed to withstand coming into contact with it. The 464 number came from 2010, which was an abnormally wet year, said Warren Wood, Ameren's vice president of external affairs and communications.

"Nowhere in any document did we say that's a normal water table," he said.

For more than four hours, the parties argued what constitutes a normal water table and how to measure it dominated the night's proceedings. Testimony was still underway late Tuesday.

Employing procedural tactics usually seen in a courtroom, attorneys for each side objected to speakers who weren't disclosed before the hearing. When environmental groups tried to allow a geologist to testify about landfill design and water tables, Ameren's attorneys and Franklin County's attorney objected because he wasn't previously disclosed as an expert witness.

Gordon Upchurch, the chair of the zoning board, allowed the testimony but said the geologist's testimony should be given less weight than other speakers.

Lipeles said the rules of procedure did not indicate names had to be submitted beforehand. "We're not in federal court here," she said.

Later, when the environmental groups tried to read testimony for a witness who was out of town, Ameren and Franklin County again raised concerns because the testimony had not been pre-filed.

Upchurch allowed the written testimony, noting the hearing had been rescheduled from an original date in late April after a board member had to leave town due to a death in the family.

The board did not make a ruling Tuesday night and it was not immediately clear when it would decide the appeal.

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

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