Franklin County Democrats

The Washington Missourian

The Ameren Missouri coal-fired power plant in Labadie is the second worst mercury polluter in the nation, according to a recently study released by Environment Missouri, a nonprofit advocacy organization.

Researchers with the environmental group analyzed new U.S. Environmental Protection Agency data in the study, “America’s Biggest Mercury Polluters — How Cleaning Up the Dirtiest Power Plants Will Protect Public Health,” released this week.

The EPA accounts for the emissions in its annual toxics release inventory. That inventory utilizes self- reported data from power plants.

The Labadie power plant produced 1,527 pounds of airborne mercury emissions in 2010, according to the study, second only to the Big Brown Steam Electric Station and Lignite Mine in Fairfield, Texas. That site produced 1,610 pounds last year.

As a whole, Missouri power plants emitted 3,835 pounds of airborne mercury in 2010.

Ameren was responsible for 3,699 pounds as a company.

We didn’t need this study to tell us how big of a polluter Ameren is in Franklin County. Neither did the county commissioners when they recently decided to give Ameren the green light on building a 400-acre coal ash waste dump in the Labadie Bottoms floodplain. The Franklin County Planning & Zoning Dept. had the data all along. It included the following statistics in a power point presentation in May of 2010 in a series of open houses to discuss existing conditions in the county:

Other Pollution:

• Franklin County ranked #5 in Missouri (2007) for total toxic chemicals disposed of or released
• 93.7% of toxic chemicals came from Ameren power plant in Labadie
• Majority is solid waste stored onsite
• > 1/3 waste comes from air emissions (hydrochloric acid, hydrogen fluoride, sulfuric acid, metal compounds (e.g., mercury)

There are 114 counties in Missouri. Ranking 5th among them for anything is pretty impressive. Presiding Commissioner, John Griesheimer, 1st District Commissioner, Terry Wilson, and 2nd District Commissioner, Ann Schroeder, all had this data at their fingertips and none of them ever brought it up in public. By a vote of 2 to 1 they sided with the 2nd worst emitter of mercury in the nation over the health and well being of the county. This was never a case of not knowing the risks. They knew and they gave Ameren what it wanted anyway. Let’s not forget that.

Had the most unbelievable conversation with 2nd District Commissioner Ann Schroeder at Robller Winery yesterday. She told me the commission’s decision to take up amending the county’s landfill use regulations had nothing to do with Ameren’s interest in building a 400-acre coal ash landfill in Labadie Bottoms. It was just an unfortunate coincidence that the utility’s plans became public at the same time they were deliberating on this issue.

I have no doubt that Schroeder is sincere in her recollection of this timeline. The public record may even show that the land use amendment was on the agenda before reports of Ameren’s plans became public. I don’t know. But if there is no connection between the commission’s actions and Ameren’s proposed landfill then why does the amendment they wrote go to such great lengths to define coal ash waste storage? If the land use regulations have no connection to the landfill project why did Ameren legal have such a huge presence at all of the public hearings on this particular issue? If it’s just a coincidence why did so much of the discussion revolve around how high to build the levy around the very landfill Ameren is coincidentally proposing? And why did Ameren’s lawyers court the two commissioners who eventually ended up voting yes instead of Ann who voted no? It’s a ridiculous assertion. It may have started out not having anything to do with Ameren, but it sure as hell didn’t end that way.

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Click here to view the beautiful Labadie Bottoms in Franklin County. Take a good look because soon Ameren will be destroying this floodplain, alive with wetlands critters, birds, and the magic of nature’s cleansing power.

On Tuesday, three county  commissioners decided to change the planning and zoning regulations to allow a toxic coal ash dump in the Missouri River floodplain. This has been a two-year struggle by well-informed, educated, powerfully professional citizens to stop an incredibly stupid plan by Ameren Missouri.

Ameren is a “power” company in more ways than one. They have absolutely no good arguments for what they want to do.  It’s just the cheapest (for them) and easiest solution to their waste disposal problem. They lied about having done a five-year study looking at alternative sites. When forced to produce such a study, they fumbled all over themselves with excuses. There was no study of alternative sites, and when local citizens gave them suggestions for alternative uses for the coal ash, they didn’t even bother to follow up on those ideas. Neither did the commissioners.

The fix was in from the beginning. (And I include the one “no” vote because that commissioner did nothing publicly to change the outcome. Ann Schroeder passively voted “yes” by her silence.)

I’m bumping up this piece from May 25, 2010. It still blows my mind that the county’s own research shows Ameren is responsible for most of the county’s pollution and here they sit, poised to allow them to pollute us even more. Amazing. It would be different if they were ignorant of the facts. But the commissioners have the information on file down the hall in the Planning and Zoning Department.

On May 17th, 2010 the Franklin County Planning and Zoning Dept. held the first in its series of open houses to discuss existing conditions in the county and to get ideas and concerns from the public. The presentation provided lots of statistics but one section in particular stood out for me. From the PowerPoint presentation we learn …

Other Pollution:

• Franklin County ranked #5 in Missouri (2007) for total toxic chemicals disposed of or released
• 93.7% of toxic chemicals came from Ameren power plant in Labadie
• Majority is solid waste stored onsite
• > 1/3 waste comes from air emissions (hydrochloric acid, hydrogen fluoride, sulfuric acid, metal compounds (e.g., mercury)

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Second District Commissioner Ann Schroeder said in a recent working session on the new land use regulations that she does not like the idea of building a landfill of any kind in a floodplain, let alone one filled with toxic coal ash, but that her objection is simply “philosophical.”

No Ann, it’s not a philosophical disagreement we are having here. It’s a logical disagreement based on reality and facts. You don’t have to be an engineer to understand that putting a toxic waste dump in a floodplain is illogical no matter how many safeguards are added. It has nothing to do with philosophy.

If you want to talk philosophy then let’s talk about who our public officials are supposed to be representing in a functioning democracy. The only people who are going to benefit from these new land use regulations are the CEOs of Ameren and the local public officials who will likely receive campaign contributions for having approved them. There is nothing in this plan that serves the public, whose interests the commissioners are supposed to represent.

That’s the philosophical part of this. Putting a toxic waste dump in a floodplain is a bad idea, no matter what your philosophy might be.

To hear Presiding Commissioner John Griesheimer and County Council Mark Vincent tell it, plenty of time has been made available to the public for comment on the new land use regulations being drafted for Franklin County. But as I remember it the public was consistently silenced when it came to discussing any specifics of the coal ash landfill Ameren Missouri wants to build in the Labadie Bottoms floodplain, or the hazards that will inevitably come with it.

They told us only public comments would be allowed that pertained to land use regulations in general. They said any discussion of coal or Ameren’s proposed landfill was out of bounds and would not be allowed. They said it was irrelevant to the regulations under consideration and the public should restrict its input to this vary narrow interpretation.

So I was a little shocked to see that the written document of the proposed regulations is almost entirely dedicated to the subject of storing coal ash waste in a landfill somewhere in Franklin County. I wonder where that might be?

The county commissioners have essentially told the public opposition to Ameren’s landfill to “sit down and shut up,” while hiding behind procedure and legaleze. They can now make the claim that they gave the public a fair hearing while pushing through regulations custom made for their most vital constituent: Ameren. All these public hearings were just for show.

This is hilarious (and kind of sad). Despite The Washington Missourian’s best efforts to give the county commissioners some cover for their votes that will soon be cast to allow Ameren Missouri to build what I like to call “The John Griesheimer Toxic Coal Ash Waste Dump,” their latest poll indicates public opinion has actually gotten much worse since last fall.

As of July 18, 2011

At a time when it’s hard to get people to agree on much of anything, that’s a pretty solid consensus. The only other poll I am aware of on this issue was conducted by Rep. Scott Dieckhaus in October 2010.

Question 11: Should Ameren be permitted to proceed with its plans to develop a landfill to store coal ash on its property near the Labadie power plant if done in accordance with federal, state, and county regulations?

Yes: 40.1%
No: 47.8%
No Opinion: 9.4%
No Response: 2.7%

Despite the ridiculously weighted question (note the qualifiers, “on its property” and “if done in accordance with“) Dieckhaus couldn’t even get a plurality in his mostly conservative district to answer yes.

Griesheimer and the other county commissioners are out there on their own with this one. Franklin Countians hate the idea of putting toxic waste in a floodplain and understand whose bread is being buttered here. The good ole boys club should stop hoping some measure of popular support for it will magically appear to save them. There isn’t any. Should it come to pass, The Griesheimer Landfill will stand as yet another reminder of how the demands of the people are obstructed by the whims of industry, power, money and influence.

As the county commissioners near a decision on whether or not to allow Ameren to build a coal ash landfill in the Labadie Bottoms floodplain, the National Weather Service is forecasting unprecedented water levels along the Missouri River. That could be an awkward decision for the commissioners should there be major flooding in Labadie this summer.

But get this …

Griesheimer said he has heard concerns about some of the dams, which have been in place for more than 60 years, failing.

“If they would, it could be a catastrophic event that would wreak havoc on everything downstream,” he said. “That’s not as wild of a scenario to believe as one might think.”

Now he tells us. The decision to build a landfill of any kind in a floodplain, let alone one that will contain toxic materials, should have been a no-brainer. It’s a stupid idea. But by all indications Griesheimer not only appears to be on the verge of allowing the landfill to go forward, but openly admits to the local paper he understands there is aging infrastructure upstream that could be catastrophic to Labadie Bottoms should it fail. To use his own words, “That’s not as wild of a scenario to believe as one might think.”

But here’s what irks me. Griesheimer’s party wants to cut spending. Part of that spending could be used for things like, oh, I dunno, upgrading aging dams on the Missouri River. At the same time they side with industry at every turn — in this case Ameren — giving them leniency to store toxic material in a floodplain downstream from the very aging infrastructure for which they want to cut spending. Of course, more stimulus money could go toward upgrading said infrastructure, and would have the ancillary effect of creating more jobs, but the geniuses in Griesheimer’s party oppose that too. Brilliant.

I’ve been hearing murmurs from opponents of the coal ash landfill in the Labadie Bottoms floodplain that converting the Labadie plant to natural gas might be a cleaner, more viable option to coal. They may want to watch the independent documentary Gasland before continuing that line of thinking.