Critics Say Ameren Has Made Up Its Mind to Leave Coal Ash in the Ground at St. Louis-Area Power Plants
Date Posted: July 8, 2019
Posted In: Discussion,
From St. Louis Post-Dispatch: How to regulate coal ash — the coal-combustion byproduct containing mercury, lead and other contaminants — has stoked plenty of debate in recent years, both in states like Missouri and at a national level.
The tug-of-war has been defined by uncertainty amid competing pushes aimed to strengthen or loosen guidelines for disposing of the material, experts say. That uncertainty has spiked recently, with an August 2018 federal court decision stating that Obama-era changes to coal ash oversight are not protective enough, even as the current Environmental Protection Agency has sought to undermine them.
And meanwhile in Missouri, the state Department of Natural Resources withdrew its own controversial proposals for coal ash oversight in late May, “as a result of the uncertainty created by the ongoing federal litigation,” the agency said. The move makes it unclear how the state might manage sites where the material is kept — including at decades-old ash ponds that can reach 100 feet deep into floodplains along major rivers and threaten groundwater.
“They’ve made it clear that’s what they’re doing,” said Maxine Lipeles, the now-retired former director of Washington University’s Interdisciplinary Environmental Clinic, speaking to the Post-Dispatch after attending Ameren’s meetings. “The more we learn, the more clear it is that it’s risky to the public and environment to leave the ash in place.”