Franklin County completes draft of coal ash landfill regulation; meeting this Friday

LABADIE, MO (ST. LOUIS PUBLIC RADIO) - The Franklin County Board of Commissioners has completed a draft zoning regulation that would open the door for Ameren to build a coal ash landfill in the small Franklin County town of Labadie.

Opportunities for the public to comment on the draft regulation are limited.

As written, the regulation would allow coal ash landfills to be built in Franklin County, with some restrictions.

Patricia Schuba of the Labadie Environmental Organization says she has a number of concerns about the draft.

"There are many questions that are still out there about these regulations, some new things that were added, some things that were deleted, and what we would like is that the public have a chance to comment on this, and that we have a little more time to review it," Schuba said.

Franklin county commissioner Ann Schroeder says the commission will discuss the draft regulation this Friday at 10 a.m. The session will be open to the public.

"But it’s not an open mic session, it’s for us to go through what we have now, and talk about it, and our concerns and likes, dislikes, everything like that. Because we’ve already had the public sessions before this," Schroader said

Schroeder expects the commission to vote on a final regulation within a week or two.

Schuba says people should still express their concerns to the commission by fax, phone or e-mail.

Véronique LaCapra, St. Louis Public Radio

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EPA announces new air pollution limits for coal-fired plants

ST. LOUIS, MO (ST. LOUIS PUBLIC RADIO) - The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has announced new limits on air pollution from coal-fired power plants.

The rule aims to lower emissions from power plants in 27 states including Missouri and Illinois.

The new rule requires states to reduce power plant emissions that produce soot and smog leading to asthma, heart attacks, and other health problems and improve air quality downwind.

Ameren spokesperson Susan Gallagher says the company is still figuring out what the new regulation means for its eleven coal-fired power plants in Missouri and Illinois.

But she says some Ameren plants have already installed air pollution controls.

"We would believe that we’re at a good baseline to minimize the impact of this rule, but it’s a little different from the proposed rule in that it appears that the EPA has made the final rule more difficult for power plants to comply," Gallagher said.

Missouri Coalition for the Environment director Kathleen Logan Smith says the regulation will keep power plants from exporting their air pollution out of state.

"Because the approach for power plants for decades was if you wanted your pollution to go away you just made your stack taller, so it went further away to the next guy downwind, Logan Smith said. "This is going to address that issue, this is going to help stop that."

According to the EPA, air pollution from Missouri and Illinois can travel as far as Pennsylvania and Texas.

Power plants will need to comply with the new pollution limits starting in January.

Véronique LaCapra, St. Louis Public Radio

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Violent storm strikes Southeast Missouri and Southern Illinois

CAPE GIRARDEAU, MO (KRCU) - The strong winds and heavy rains that pulverized Southeast Missouri and Southern Illinois left downed power lines, shattered trees, and damaged roofs throughout the region.

The National Weather Service reports that winds in Olive Branch, Illinois – in Alexander County – reached between 90 and 95 miles per hour last night as the storm rushed through that area.

In Cape County, winds at the Cape Girardeau Regional Airport touched 58 miles per hour. In Daisy, a barn was blown over and tree damage is widespread.

Damage was reported throughout Bollinger County. Marble Hill experienced straight line winds between 70 and 75 miles per hour. Most of the damage was reported west and north of Marble Hill, and includes some homes that lost their roofs. An unconfirmed tornado was reported west of Sedgewickville in Bollinger County, as well.

There was an unconfirmed tornado spotting near Randles, southwest of Chaffee.

Near the Mississippi County-New Madrid County line, 70 miles per hour winds were reported to have physically moved vehicles.

The National Weather Service’s Rachel Trevino says that most of the damaged was caused by the straight line winds.

"No confirmed tornadoes. Obviously, that time of night, when it’s dark, we have a hard time identifying anything. Usually you can’t tell if it’s tornado damage unless you put people on the ground. But we do believe that almost everything was straight line winds last night," Trevino said.

Power outages were widespread over night. The lights seem to be turning back on for most Ameren customers, though. As of six o’clock this morning, most of the Ameren outages are occurring in Cape Girardeau and Farmington. 137 Ameren customers are without power in Cape Girardeau. 281 Ameren customers are without power in and around Farmington.

There are also reports of outages in Delta and Oran.

Jacob McCleland, KRCU

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Ameren says that Callaway nuclear plant is safe

Ameren's sole nuclear power plant was built to handle “worst case” natural disasters. 

That’s what Ameren officials told reporters on Friday, at a press conference called in response to the nuclear crisis in Japan.

The utility’s Chief Nuclear Officer Adam Heflin says the Callaway County plant has numerous back-up safety systems. Those include six sources of electrical power designed to protect against a total station blackout like the one Japan.

“Probably the number one thing that we focus on is nuclear safety, and that’s protecting the health and welfare of the public,” Hefflin says.

Heflin says Callaway is designed to withstand the most severe earthquakes, tornadoes, and flooding that could happen in our region.

Missouri environmental groups say that no matter how safely a plant is designed and operated, it’s impossible to prepare for all the unknown variables involved in a natural disaster.

Missouri Coalition for the Environment’s Ed Smith calls the U.S. nuclear industry a “financial black hole” that he says is only surviving because of economic support from states and the federal government.

And Smith says the current nuclear crisis in Japan shows how difficult it is to protect nuclear plants from natural disasters.

“What we need to understand about nuclear power is that we don’t know all the answers to how to respond to a natural disaster because the variables are unknown,” Smith says.

Véronique LaCapra, St. Louis Public Radio

Photo: Callaway Nuclear Plant courtesy of Ameren.

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EPA proposes new power plant air standards

ST. LOUIS, MO (ST. LOUIS PUBLIC RADIO) - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has proposed the first-ever national standards for air pollution from power plants.

The new rules would require many power plants to install technologies to control mercury, arsenic and other toxic air pollutants.

Environment Missouri’s Ted Mathys says the new standards would help protect the health of Missourians.

“We know that because Missouri has a significant amount of mercury pollution from our coal fired power plants that these regulations will help protect Missouri’s families and our wildlife from the dangerous effects of mercury pollution,” Mathys said.

Ameren Missouri says installing new pollution controls could cost hundreds of millions of dollars — costs the company says could be passed on to customers.

Ameren’s Vice President of Environmental Services, Mike Menne, says installing the required pollution controls could cost the company hundreds of millions of dollars and increase rates to consumers.

“This particular rule will require controls on every coal-fired power plant we have. We’re going to be attempting to control things that we’ve never tried to in the past,” Menne said.

Véronique LaCapra, St. Louis Public Radio

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Lawmakers, Ameren continue plans for second Callaway plant

JEFFERSON CITY, MO (MISSOURI DIGITAL NEWS) - Missouri lawmakers and Ameren Missouri have not given up their plans to pursue building a second nuclear power plant in Callaway County, despite recent problems at a Japanese nuclear power plant.

Last week, a Senate committee heard testimony from both supporters and opponents of the proposed second Callaway plant just two days prior to a 9.0 earthquake and subsequent tsunami that hit Japan, causing three reactor explosions at the Fukushima Daiichi plant. Even though these explosions have spotlighted potential problems with nuclear plants, Ameren, the state's main utility provider, and its legislative supporters have not changed their stance on legislation dealing with plans for another nuclear plant.

Ameren's Business Operations Supervisor, Rick Eastman, said that Japan's problems with its nuclear reactors have not impeded the company's promotion of legislation pushing for an early site permit needed to begin construction of a second plant in Callaway County.

Eastman also said Ameren has several safety procedures in place to deal to deal with emergency situations, including those caused by natural disasters such as an earthquake or tornado. These safety precautions include steel-enforced concrete walls, seismic sensors, backup generators as well as the ability to shut down the plant if anything "out of the ordinary" is noticed.

"If there is anything that might threaten the plant, the first step is to shut the reactor down," Eastman saidSen. Mike Kehoe, R-Jefferson City, the sponsor of the bill, agreed with Eastman and said Missouri's energy future cannot be influenced by international events and that the option for nuclear power has to be left open.

"We have to continue to talk about what sources of energy we are going to get for this state," Kehoe said. "The unfortunate incident in Japan has not changed the fact that coal is a very expensive source that is under attack from various groups from A to Z, so the way we produce power in this state is, unfortunately, not going to be changed by what happens globally, and the demand for power in this state is going to continue to be there and continue to be a need that we need to address."

So far the Fukushima plant in Japan has suffered from three explosions, which have severely damaged three reactors and caused a fire in a fourth. Following last Friday's earthquake and subsequent tsunami, the Fukushima plant's cooling systems failed, causing spent fuel rods to spike in temperature, cracking the casings around the rods. Once the casings around the rods became damaged, Japanese officials believe that the rods, after coming into contact with the steam released hydrogen gas, which was then vented out of the reactors and caused the explosions.

Eastman, said that the utility provider is waiting for the legislation to make its way through the General Assembly so the company can keep the option of building another plant open. If the proposed legislation passes, Ameren would be allowed to apply for an early site permit from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission as well as charge its ratepayers an additional two dollars for up to 20 years to pay for the construction of the new nuclear facility.

"No decision to build a second plant has been made, the whole legislation regarding the site permit is simply to keep the option open as we continue to look at what's the best thing to do for Missouri's energy future," Eastman said. "If we were to push forward with approved site permit legislation and Ameren Missouri were to file for an application [to build a plant], part of what we would use the three year NRC review time for is to look at all of the various technologies."

Kehoe said that despite general safety concerns, due to strict safety standards in the country, any nuclear plants that Ameren would build would be sufficiently safer then the Fukushima plant in Japan, which was built in 1967.

"It would be irresponsible for someone to say there are no safety concerns," Kehoe said. "There are always safety concerns when you build any kind of project...I think the facilities that we would go forward with would be engineered through the early site permit process to withstand any possible acts of nature that we could have."

The Fukushima Unit 1 reactor follows the Genereal Electric Mark 1 reactor design, making it a boiling water reactor meaning that the coolant water for spent fuel rods is also used for the steam turbine system, causing a high probability of radioactive contamination of the water. According to a report released by the Nuclear Information and Resource Service, a nuclear energy information and watchdog group, there are 23 similar reactors in the United States, four of which are located in Illinois. Unlike these reactors, Ameren's current Callaway plant is a pressurized water reactor, which separates the coolant water from the steam turbine system, reducing the risk of radioactive contamination.

At the committee hearing last Friday, Ameren's CEO, Warren Baxter promoted the benefits of a potential second Callaway plant in front of the Senate committee."[A site permit] gives us the opportunity to access federal incentives, which can save our customers money," Baxter said at the hearing. "Certainly there is no doubt that a nuclear plant could present a great economic development opportunity by creating thousand of clean energy jobs and hundreds, if not more, permanent jobs in the future."

Matthew Patane, Missouri Digital News
Photo: Callaway Nuclear Plant courtesy of Ameren

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Crowds gather to discuss Callaway nuclear power plant

JEFFERSON CITY (MISSOURI DIGITAL NEWS) - Testifiers on a plan for a second nuclear plant for Callaway County gathered outside two Senate hearing rooms Wednesday a hour before a hearing on the issue even began, causing blockage of a hallway that continued even after Senate doormen allowed some of the crowd to enter the rooms.

The crowd, consisting of both supporters and dissenters of the plan, were forced to accumulate on nearby benches and watch the proceedings on a TV provided for them in the hallway. Each person in the crowd came to provide their opinions on an attempt by the state's main utility provider, Ameren Missouri, to put the cost of building the plant on its ratepayers.

In order to build the plant, Ameren needs to acquire a early site permit from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which would allow the utility company to hire outside researchers to analyze environmental, geological and safety aspects of the proposed building site. Sponsor of the bill, Sen. Mike Kehoe, R-Jefferson City, said the bill is a compromise between Ameren, supporting energy providers and state lawmakers to ensure the site permit moves forward, while ratepayers are still protected from suffering a major tax-increase.

"After multiple meetings, I came up with [the bill], which is laid out to be a compromise, but I want to be clear, it is not an agreement to the letter from either side." Kehoe said. "No one on either side of this equation was 100 percent happy with it but it represents, me, as a common sense guy, saying I recognize what needs to be done and the need for consumer protection, and I thought that was fair."

Warner Baxter, CEO of Ameren Missouri, said the ratepayers would be charged an additional two dollars for the average resident and two-tenths of one percent for the larger industrial users. Baxter called the charge a low cost for building and promoted the potential benefits a site permit and nuclear plant could bring.

"[A site permit] gives us the opportunity to access federal incentives, which can save our customers money," Baxter said. "Certainly there is no doubt that a nuclear plant could present a great economic development opportunity by creating thousand of clean energy jobs and hundreds, if not more, permanent jobs in the future."

To protect the ratepayers, Kehoe said his bill provides certain instructions about how much Ameren can charge as well as procedures for ratepayer rebates if for some reason Ameren does not use the site permit to build a nuclear plant:

• The proposal places a "hard cap" on the amount of money Ameren can recover from its customers to pay for the site permit. According to the proposal, Ameren cannot collect more then $40 to $45 million from its ratepayers.
  
  
• Ameren can only conduct the additional rate for a period of 20 years. Once this period has concluded, Ameren can no longer collect fees from the ratepayers to help pay for the site permit. Ameren estimates, however, hold that at two dollars per resident per year, the company should be able to allot enough money to reach the $40 to $45 million cap.
  
  
• If the site is not built, the bill requires Ameren to give back the money it collected. Should the bill pass, if for some reason Ameren does not receive the site permit from the NRC, decides to sell it or does not build the plant, the utility provider would need to present a rebate to the ratepayers that equals the amount the company received from the consumers, including interest. Ameren would need to present the credit to ratepayers in a five to ten year period.

Opponents to the bill, such as members from the Missouri Coalition for the Environment, said making consumers pay for the plant's construction went along with the Construction Work in Progress proposal, which allows utilities to charge ratepayers for the payment of new power plants during construction. Ed Smith, the No-CWIP representative with the Coalition, stated that the proposed legislation should not pass since voters shot down similar legislation two years ago and that Ameren needed CWIP to build the second Callaway reactor.

"Without CWIP, Ameren would not be able to finance a second nuclear reactor and Ameren needs CWIP because the free market gave up on nuclear power decades ago," Smith said. "While construction of a second nuclear reactor is sure to create jobs in Missouri, no state has ever improved its economic well-being by going with the more expensive option."

Smith also said that Missourians should not be left to "pick up the tab on a 50-50 gamble" that he said Ameren has already spent millions of dollars on pursuing.

Matthew Patane, Missouri Digital News

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Coal ash landfill controversy continues in Franklin County

LABADIE, MO (ST. LOUIS PUBLIC RADIO) - In the small Franklin County town of Labadie, Missouri, about 35 miles west of St. Louis, a debate is raging over what to do with millions of tons of coal ash.

The dispute is pitting area residents against the utility company Ameren – and putting Franklin County’s commissioners in the middle of the fight.

It all started with the Labadie ladies book club.

“Well, we don’t really have a name,” says long-time Franklin County resident Kay Genovese.

It was the summer of 2009. “Everybody was just gathering, and somebody kind of off-handedly said, oh, did you all hear that so-and-so just sold his bottom ground. And nobody had heard about that, and she said, yeah, I heard he sold it to Ameren.”

Bottom ground – that’s land in the floodplain of the Missouri River. Genovese says at book club the next month, they found out another farmer had sold his land.

“And we were like, oh, to Ameren again?” Genovese said. “Three months in a row, we kept hearing about these different farmers selling their ground to Ameren.”

The book club ladies started asking questions. They found out that Ameren was planning to build a 400-acre coal ash landfill in the floodplain, next door to its massive power plant in Labadie.

Ameren’s Labadie Power Plant

Shift supervisor Jim Dean says with its four huge turbines, Labadie can generate enough power to supply electricity to almost half a million homes. To do it, the place burns coal by the train load.

“Each train has about 130 cars in it,” Dean said. “Each car holds 100 tons of coal. And we’ll burn one car, 100 tons of coal, in about four minutes with all four units at full load.”

At two coal trains a day, that works out to about 10 million tons of coal a year. Approximately seven percent of that – over half a million tons – is left over as coal ash.

Ameren recycles more than half of it.

The rest gets mixed with water, and sluiced out to two open ponds next to the plant. The coal ash settles out to the bottom, and the remaining water gets discharged, untreated, into the Missouri River.

Running Out of Room

But Ameren’s Vice President of Environmental Services, Mike Menne, says those ponds are running out of room. At 400 acres, the new landfill would be big enough to replace them both and take ash from Ameren’s Meramec and Rush Island plants, too.

Menne says the new landfill would have protection systems the current ponds lack. It would be double-lined to protect groundwater and have a berm around it — about as high as a two-story building — to keep floodwaters out.

“And then it has what’s referred to as a leachate collection system which is a water collection system,” Menne added. “Any water that would percolate through the material is collected and sent back to the plant to be used for process water.”

Local Impact

Even with all the new safety precautions, many area residents are worried about all that ash and what’s in it: toxic elements like arsenic, chromium, and lead, which can cause cancer, developmental problems, and other serious health issues.

They’re afraid those hazardous substances could wind up in groundwater or the Missouri River and contaminate area drinking water supplies. They’re also concerned about property values and increased truck traffic.

Remember those Labadie book club ladies, who first found out about Ameren’s landfill plans? Well, they got organized, and gave themselves a name: the Labadie Environmental Organization now has close to 400 members.

One of them is Franklin County resident Petra Haynes. She hopes Ameren will — as she puts it — “do the right thing” and not build a landfill in the floodplain.

“We really firmly believe that there has to be a better, safer location,” Haynes said. “We would like Ameren to really consider the safety and well-being of their customers, rather than the bottom line.”

“We Have to Put It Somewhere”

Haynes and other area residents have been voicing their concerns at public hearings with the Franklin County board of commissioners. The board is trying to decide whether to change county zoning regulations to allow utility waste landfills like Ameren’s.

Presiding Commissioner John Griesheimer says he understands why people don’t want a landfill in the floodplain.

“But the bottom line is we have to put it somewhere,” Griesheimer said. “To be opposed to it and have an alternative is one thing, but to be just opposed to it without giving us another option here, that’s another matter, and that’s what’s hard for everybody to do.”

Griesheimer says a final decision on the county’s landfill regulations is still months away.

Véronique LaCapra, St. Louis Public Radio

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EPA responses to Blunt criticism

EPA Regional Administrator Karl Brooks says the government’s lawsuit against Ameren for Clean Air Act violations is justified.

Last month, the EPA sued Ameren Missouri for violations at its Rush Island power plant in Jefferson County.

Senator Roy Blunt was quick to defend the company, charging the EPA with a campaign to penalize all coal-fired power plants.

EPA Regional Administrator Karl Brooks says Ameren made major modifications to its plant without obtaining the necessary permits or adding required pollution controls.

"The government is confident that there were violations of the Clean Air Act and that’s why we initiated the enforcement case against Ameren," Brooks said.

Ameren denies any wrongdoing, saying the modifications were routine maintenance projects that did not increase emissions.

Véronique LaCapra, St. Louis Public Radio

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