The Labadie Environmental Organization has been fighting Ameren’s plan to put a coal ash dump in the Missouri River floodplain (say what?!) above the drinking water supply for much of St. Louis–the most ill conceived location imaginable. Now it’s crunch time. Here’s LEO’s latest e-mail:

IS IT THE END OF THE ROAD FOR THE LANDFILL HEARINGS?

Commissioner Griesheimer says this is the final hearing.  The road to this last landfill zoning hearing has been a long and winding one.  With 3 hearings down, 4 hearings postponed and one to go, let’s hope this last one goes off without a hitch from Mother Nature.  Who knows what “hitches” might be in store at the hearing.  There have been plenty in the past.  

The goal when LEO formed 18 months ago was simple but concerned a complex subject:  educate the public and the people making the zoning decision about the hazards of landfills and the hazardous nature of coal ash.  Landfills don’t belong in a floodplain.

From the beginning, our efforts have been met with resistance from the very people who should be advocating for our interests.  LEO has been labeled “opponent” but “advocate” is the right term.  We’ve been called “contentious” for being “tenacious” and not giving up when the goal was to wear out the public.

Thank you for being a tenacious advocate.  Keep up the good work!   Load up the car with friends and neighbors and come to Union on Tuesday.  An auditorium full of advocates would send a powerful message.  Details:

Tuesday, Feb 8th, 6 pm

East Central College

1964 Prairie Dell Rd.

Union MO 63084

Classroom Bldg-AC, Auditorium

If you absolutely, positively cannot attend, please email your comments to

commission@franklinmo.net and send a copy to contact@leomo.info (optional).

or mail your comments to:

Franklin County Commission

400 E. Locust, Room 206

Union, Mo. 63084

Check the website for the latest “in the news” and blogposts.

http://www.leomo.info

There’s a global work party going on this Sunday for environmental activists:

Patricia Schuba, one of the activists working for LEO (Labadie Environmental Organization) to prevent Ameren from building a new coal ash landfill on the Missouri River, says that there are over 7,000 events scheduled worldwide. It is the largest day of environmental action ever planned. In fact, as of Thursday only 3-4 nations were not represented. The U.S. has around 1,200 events planned. The Labadie group has said that their event is the smallest with potentially one of the biggest impacts, given the effect that a landfill would have on water resources for millions.

And what does the Labadie event involve? Plenty.

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Previous coverage:

Getting the Missouri river follow to orders

Community Theater of the Absurd

Ameren’s big guns

The execs at AmerenUE aren’t fools. They know they’ve gotta move fast because the EPA may well decide to reclassify coal ash as hazardous waste, and that decision could come as early as this fall. If that happens, FEMA regs would prohibit Ameren from putting its next landfill for coal ash on the Missouri river floodplain at Labadie in Franklin County. Right now, Franklin County regulations forbid Ameren to do that anyway, but the County Planning and Zoning Commission is proposing amendments to the current law that would give the electric company leeway to do what it wants. And if the company manages to get the landfill done before the new EPA regs kick in, the new facility might become a magnet where coal ash from other plants could also be dumped.

The spot where Ameren wants to put that landfill is smack where the floodwaters of ’93 were. And this coal ash is some deadly stuff. The equipment required on modern smokestacks to capture pollution makes the coal ash they haul out of there full of higher concentrations than ever of arsenic, lead, chromium, and selenium, to name a few. Earth Justice reports, for example, that the EPA tests show that “arsenic, a potent carcinogen, leached from one coal ash at 1,800 times the federal safe drinking water standard.”

So I drove more than an hour from home Tuesday night to attend a Planning and Zoning Commission meeting because I live downriver from that site. One man who spoke in opposition to the landfill got cheers when he said that Franklin County should do unto those downriver what it would have people upriver do unto its own residents.

But, what the hell, I’m probably worrying over nothing. The representatives from Ameren assured the naysayers that this landfill would be built on a foundation that’s as hard as concrete, instead of the soft stuff usually used to line such sites that deteriorates pretty quickly. The concrete-like substance is even an example of recycling, since it is partly composed of coal ash.(Oh. Then when it does eventually decompose, won’t it leach toxic substances into the river? Ah, but that’s many years from now. Not to worry.)

Furthermore, Ameren will build a berm around the site to keep it safe from floodwaters. What the company hopes is that the berm or levee will prompt FEMA to “remap” that area and declare that the site itself is NOT on a hundred year floodplain. One Ameren rep who spoke was so blithe about thus sidestepping sensible regulations that he characterized this plan as “regulatory gyrations.” Then he smiled.

Maxine Lipeles, of the Washington University Law School was not amused, and got a big response from the crowd when she said:

So you’ve got a scheme that can, you know you can remap this site and so it doesn’t say a hundred year floodplain, but it doesn’t take it any farther away from the Missouri river. And there’s nothing that Franklin County or anybody can do that’s gonna tell the Missouri river not to flood that site.

I’ve heard rumors that levees don’t always yield all the protection the builders promise. Ms. Lipeles pointed that out, in fact. But surely Ameren UE is trustworthy about maintaining its facilities.

Some in the audience Tuesday night were skeptical. Some were even cynical about the motives of the Planning and Zoning Commission. But me, I came away reassured. I am, however, thinking of moving to Kansas City.

Mother Nature may be conspiring to force the issue of fossil fuels into the national consciousness.  While we’re watching the devastation in the Gulf of Mexico, the story about the other deadly energy source, coal, is getting less attention.

Within minutes of the release of the long-awaited EPA report on the dangers of coal ash on May 4, several environmental groups held a phone conference to discuss the report. Earthjustice is taking the lead in summarizing the report and urging public participation during the 90-day comment period.

Background:  In December 2009, EPA released findings from studies of coal ash and scrubber sludge residues using new and more accurate testing methods.  This report showed much higher levels of toxic substances than previously thought.  Ironically, what the coal industry has done is trade one environmental problem for another.  Pollutants that used to spew out into the air now are contained and stored in surface empoundments where the heavy metals leach into groundwater.

In Labadie, Mo, the power company, AmerenUE, wants to build a 400 acre landfill to store the residue next to its plant in the Missouri River floodplain.  A highly motivated group of residents is trying to head this monster off before it gets started.

A rational person might think that a damaging report by environmental scientists demonstrating incredibly toxic levels of mercury, arsenic, lead, selenium, etc. in coal ash would shelve any plans to dump the stuff in a floodplain.  But, then again, a rational person might be living in la la land – or at least in a more advanced culture than what we have to put up with in the good ole USA.

Missouri Reps Skeleton and Leutkemeyer, as well as the Missouri Department of Natural Resources and Missouri Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder, have all written letters to EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson opposing regulation of coal waste as a hazardous substance.  They basically say that Missouri is already doing a great job of monitoring and regulating coal waste and more regs would just be too expensive.  Where have we heard that before?

This is an ongoing story.  More later.