New Hearing Ordered on Ameren Coal Ash Lawsuit
Date Posted: February 5, 2015
Posted In: News, Organizations,
From STLtoday: Ameren Missouri’s planned coal ash landfill in Franklin County faces more uncertainty after a ruling Tuesday by the state’s highest court.
In a unanimous decision, the Missouri Supreme Court sent a challenge from an environmental group back to Franklin County Circuit Court for a new hearing.
The court said local officials can’t keep the public from discussing the actual projects that are affected by proposed zoning law changes, an issue in the challenge to Franklin County’s zoning ordinance that allowed the coal ash landfill.
The court’s decision appears to keep alive years of legal efforts to stop Ameren from building the landfill in the Missouri River flood plain, though the utility, which won a key state permit last month, says it plans to move forward amid the new legal hearings.
The Labadie Environmental Organization had challenged Franklin County zoning laws that allow Ameren to build a coal ash landfill near its hulking Labadie power plant. The zoning laws were invalid, the group argued, because the Franklin County Commission did not conduct a proper public hearing.