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SarahJo and I have been squawking about AmerenUE’s bid to put a 400 acre coal ash landfill on the Missouri River floodplain, just a few miles upstream from the water processing plant for all of North St. Louis County. If it were allowed, it would be travesty on top of mortal sin. And make no mistake about it, Ameren is already guilty of mortal sin, because its Labadie plant, one of the largest coal fired plants in the country, ranks fourth in mercury emissions and eleventh in carbon dioxide emissions. Meanwhile, the company is sort of not mentioning to people in the metro St. Louis region that they face increased risk of heart attacks, respiratory problems and premature death because they’re breathing air full of toxic particulate matter. I guess the utility figures there’s no percentage in advertising something like voluntary manslaughter. Or is it reckless endangerment? Whatever. I call it a mortal sin.
Ameren could and should meet EPA standards, but it has been in violation of them ever since the Clean Air Act became law, and it has no intention of cleaning up its act. So the Washington University interdisciplinary environmental law clinic, on behalf of the Sierra Club, requested a public hearing on Ameren’s permit renewal. The Missouri Department of Natural Resources (DNR) will conduct that hearing this Thursday evening.
I’ve marveled for years that people quake at the possibility of a terrorist attack and calmly acquiesce to breathing poisoned air. Don’t do it. It’s time to fill that hall and raise a stink.
The time is 7:00, Thursday, Oct. 21st. The place is Labadie Elementary School, 2749 Highway T, Labadie, MO, 63055.
Thanks, hotflash. As I prepare to attend that hearing on air pollution in Labadie this Thursday, I keep humming that old tune, “All I need is the air that I breathe and to love you.” Don’t have a clue whose tune it is, but I always liked it.
I know a woman with horses who lives in close proximity to the Ameren plant. She showed me the rash on her ankles from walking through the grass in her pasture. She knows when “they” are cleaning the smokestacks because an acrid smell and repulsive crud make her sick. Her horses are sick too. She’s looking for some land far away from the plant so she can get out of that death camp. That farm has been in her family for three generations. Just thinking about her situation makes me furious.
I hope people who read your post make the effort to come to Labadie Thursday night. Dirty air hurts all of us. This is not just a Labdie issue.