Environmental Scientist Dr. Henry Cole and Patuxent Riverkeeper Fred Tutman explain why some community groups have joined a lawsuit against a Brandywine coal ash disposal site operated by Mirant Corporation.
CTV's Patricia Villone reports.
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Added on 12/22/10
OUR MISSION:
is to inform and educate the community about the environmental issues impacting health and well-being; to inspire positive change; and encourage practices for sustainability.
WHO IS LEO? LEO is a grassroots, non-profit, non-partisan citizens group which formed to address important environmental issues that impact our lives today and in the future.
ISSUES: A current priority issue is to stop AmerenUE siting a 400 acre, 100 foot tall coal ash waste on 1100+ acres of Missouri River bottomland. The proposed site is in the 100 year floodplain of the Missouri River. LEO's Campaign to Save Our Bottoms was launched in 2009 to inform local and downstream residents and mobilize the political will to site the landfill elsewhere, establish protections for the landfill and encourage the utility to minimize waste storage.
We are also dedicated to protecting clean water resources, community businesses and interests, and promoting sustainable development so future generations can live safely and prosper. We are dedicated to building community.
WHAT IS COAL ASH? It is what's left after burning coal for power – boiler slag, scrubber sludge, fly ash and bottom ash. Most of this waste is stored in our nation's floodplains, endangering our precious clean water resources while also increasing flood damage risks.
WHAT CAN YOU DO?
JOIN US! Become a LEO Member (FREE or paid) and get emails
Sign the on-line petition (together with our paper petition is about 2000 strong)
Make a donation (our only source of funding)
Spread the word (talk with neighbors, tell them to check out our website)
MISSOURI DEPARTMENT OF NATURAL RESOURCES www.dnr.mo.gov
Click on Divisions and Programs
Choose Division of Environmental Quality, then Solid Waste Management or Hazardous waste to learn more about waste management in Missouri.
Choose Division of Geology and Land Surveying, then environmental geology section to learn more about geologic and hydrologic information.
MISSOURI SECRETARY OF STATE www.sos.mo.gov
Click on Administrative Rules, then Code of State Regulations, Title 10 (Department of Natural Resources), choose Division 80 to learn about solid waste management
Please take a moment to send a personalized letter to the County Commission asking that they represent the needs of the entire County by NOT changing the zoning code to allow CCW landfills or other landfills in unincorporated Franklin County. They seem to think this is only a Labadie area issue...but, it is an issue for all of us. Just like w/ the Sens/Reps they need to hear from many of us, in our own words...why they should not go ahead w/ a zoning code change.
Send correspondances to:
Franklin County Commission
Franklin County Government Center
400 East Locust
Union MO 63084
ATTEND COUNTY HEARINGS
The last hearing on the County zoning code changes was April 7th, 2011. Five hearings at the County level, attended by hundreds of concerned citizens, should have provided adequate public input suggesting the County Commission should wait until the EPA rules on handling of coal ash waste. Presiding Commissioner Griesheimer stated in a public meeting that it would be at least 3 weeks before they get the official hearing transcripts and then "months of deliberation" before a decision is made. April 7th was the "call back" hearing in which they asked for additional information or clarification from 10 of those who provided previous testimony. LEO made a strong case that any changes to the County zoning code to allow CCW landfilling was not in the interest of citizens or the County.
We continue to attend Tues 10 a.m. Commission hearings to be certain that we are aware of any public announcements on the decision process. If you are able to attend...please do. Information is posted at the County website www.franklinmo.org under the Planning and Zoning tab.
If the County Commission decides to change the zoning code to allow coal ash waste landfills as conditional uses we will need to attend permit hearings. This is unlikely before May 2011. Make sure to be signed up to receive email alerts. Send us your contact information via the Contact Us tab on the website...or email contact@leomo.info. If at anytime you wish to be removed from the email list, just let us know.
SIGN THE LEO, SAVE OUR BOTTOMS PETITION!
Follow link to our Sign the ONLINE Petition page. Encourage as many of your friends and family to sign. It is not necessary that one live in Labadie or even Franklin County. According to law, we ALL own our nation's waterway resources. Someone in MA has as much a say about the contamination of the Missouri River as someone living in Labadie. The petition is design to be a voice of the collective against 1) polluting natural resources 2) industrial development in our nation's natural floodplains.
Thanks to everyone who sent comments to the EPA on the PROPOSED COAL ASH RULE that were due by Nov 19, 2010. Let's hope that sane minds will prevail and EPA will rule to federally regulate coal ash waste and protect communities!
UPDATE: Feb 16, 2011. A block of Congressional Representatives in the US House have tact on amendments to the budget bill that would in effect block the EPA from regulating coal ash waste as hazardous under Subtitle C. Amendment 10 (Cliff Stearns, R-FL) and Amendment 217 (David McKinley, R-WV) would require EPA to regulate coal ash as nonhazardous under Subtitle D - meaning unenforceable and business as usual. Most alarming would be that this route would guarantee that polluters will have the legal right to continue to dump coal ash in unlined pits and ponds...like those known to be leaking in Labadie.
UPDATE: April 2011. Votes in House of Representatives did not allow a super-majority to override a Presidential veto of the measures to hobble the EPA in regulating coal ash, mercury and CO2 emissions. In response, McKinley has put together a bill that would not allow EPA to rule Subtitle C (federal enforceable standards, phase out ponds, standards for landfills, required monitoring and oversight). There was a House hearing of the Energy and Commerce committee pushing McKinley's bill H.R. 1391. You can watch the hearing or review the transcript HERE. Of note was testimony by Lisa Evans of Earthjustice and resident Curtis Havens of PN (Little Blue impoundment).
Please take a moment to call your Congressional Representative (Leutkemeyer, District 9 for Franklin Co, Columbia MO, etc. 202-225-2956) as IDed at www.contactingthecongress.org and let them know to vote NO on the McKinley bill H.R. 1391 and ask that they be leaders in protecting communities back home. If these measure pass on to the Senate, we will need you to call our Senators: McCaskill and Blunt. See April blog post w/ links to all MO Reps and Sens. We have been told that calls, personalized emails and written letters are most effective. Take the time to do all 3 and commit to calling about every 2-3 weeks to see what they are doing to protect us.
To make a donation to LEO Please click on the link below.
Labadie Environmental Organization P.O. Box 112, Labadie, MO 63055-0112 contact@leomo.info If you would like to be on our mailing list (email), ask a question, share a comment, or volunteer to help, please complete and submit the following form. We’ll be in touch.
FLOODPLAINS: GIANT SPONGES OR CONCRETE SKIRTS?
Remember those high school exercises in logical thinking? Students were told to delete the statement in the group that ran counter to the sense of the whole. Here’s a quiz like that for our time and place:
During periods of high water the floodplains bordering the Missouri and Mississippi rivers act as giant sponges to absorb water and control flooding.
Regional rainfall has increased in amount and severity in recent years. Missouri ranks second in the nation in deaths attributed to flooding. Sites in Missouri and Iowa have had two 500 year floods in the last 15 years. Many climate models predict that in a warming world, precipitation and flood events will increase even more in the near future.
FEMA has moved entire towns out of the flood plains in this region because of the certainty of reflooding. At taxpayers expense , Grafton and Valmeyer, Il., and Rhineland, Mo., have all been moved to higher ground.
The Army Corps of Engineers is building dikes and levees to help development move into the floodplain. Developments scheduled for the near future, built behind the perceived safety of the levees, include a 900 acre mixed use development in Glen Carbon, Il.; 4200 acre mixed use in Maryland Heights; 550 acre development in Kansas City on ground under water in 1993, and Ameren’s coal combustion waste landfill in Labadie also on ground flooded in 1993.
The irrationality of building in the flood plain comes at a staggering cost to taxpayers. Land owners who build without insurance and subsequently get flooded will get federal disaster mitigation monies to repair and rebuild.
The federal government and taxpayers are also on the hook when the insured get flooded. Approved in 1968, the National Flood Insurance Program provides flood insurance to flood plain builders in communities that agree to adopt a floodplain management ordinance. What was meant to be protection for a few already located in the flood plains has been incentive for a commercial boom that threatens to turn miles of once-absorbent river ground into a concrete skirt. Cheap insurance and rates that do not reflect risk have fueled the irresponsible growth. Tax hungry municipalities have facilitated it.
Out of seven states flooded in 1993, Missouri ranked first in building in the floodplain after waters receded, according to a Post-Dispatch study. The state accounted for 78 percent of all the new flood plain building in the seven state region. Meanwhile, a 2004 Congressional study found that federal flood insurance payouts for repetitive loss properties cost the taxpayers $200 million annually. Carolyn Kousky, in a paper published in 2008 entitled “Improving Flood Insurance and Flood Risk Management, suggests that if rates reflected the risk of flooding , it would be a disincentive for flood plain development.
Another suggestion from environmentalists is to reprioritize the mandate of the US Army Corps of Engineers, the agency charged with management of federal waterways and floodplains. At present, the agency sees itself as the enabler for floodplain building, constructing levees and avoiding environmental impact studies. The Obama administration is considering an executive order that would redirect the agency to a primary mission of floodplain restoration and protection. It would require the agency not to oppose any flood plain building for which there is a practical alternative. Makes sense!
~Florence Shinkle
Proposed site for the 400 acre landfill (to the right of the plant) was under 10' of water in 1993 for weeks. The Missourian.
View of the Labadie Power Plant from Augusta Bottoms
This is what a working coal ash landfill looks like.
People trying to enter the 6/15/2010 hearing.
Crowds of people in the halls prior to the 6/15/2010 hearing.
Sunflower fields on proposed landfill site
View from overlook on south side of Missouri River
