The Saint Louis Dispatch reports that a coal burning power plant operated by the Ameren corporation outside of Labadie, Missouri has been leaking coal waste from its coal ash pond for almost 20 years – at the rate of 35 gallons per minute. That makes for a total leak of 350 million gallons of coal ash sludge over this time.
Ameren has known about the leak. So has the state government of Missouri. Yet, neither the state government nor Ameren have done anything to stop the leak.
Putting residents of Labadie at further risk, neither the state of Missouri nor the Ameren corporation have tested the area around the power plant’s coal ash disposal pond for contamination. The pond is only about two thousand feet from the Missouri River, and less than one thousand feet from a stream that feeds directly into the Missouri River. So, it’s possible that the area downstream of Labadie has been impacted by the pollution as well. The Missouri feeds into the Mississippi River just 20 miles to the east of Labadie. Coal ash contains deadly toxins such as arsenic, mercury, lead and cadmium.
To add insult to injury, the Ameren corporation has proposed building an additional, 400 acre landfill for coal ash, also quite close to the Missouri River. Locals with the Labadie Environmental Organization are working in opposition to this expansion of the coal plant’s pollution. The group explains, “If approved by the Missouri Department of Natural Resources, the proposed landfill will sit on top of an alluvial aquifer in the floodplain of the Missouri River just east of the Labadie power plant.”
The failure of the Missouri state government to restrain the terrible pollution by Ameren’s coal power plant at Labadie is a reminder of the need for national coordination for protection of America’s waterways by the EPA. Republican presidential candidates are currently calling for the dissolution of the EPA, but if anything, EPA funding needs to be increased, to make up for state governments that are either unable or unwilling to stand in the way of Big Coal.
