WPBN: When it comes to the Clean Air Act violations that occurred at the Rush Island Power Plant in Festus, a court has ordered Ameren Missouri to spend $61 million on projects that are related to mitigating those violations.
This includes fourteen years of “excess emissions” of sulfur dioxide that were not permitted, according to the Environmental Protection Agency, and the order put an end to litigation that had been going on for years.
A total of 125,000 households in eastern Missouri will receive vouchers worth $25 million from Ameren Missouri in order to purchase air filters in order to improve the quality of the air inside their homes. The power company, the Sierra Club, and the Department of Justice “jointly proposed” the terms that were to be implemented.
According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), dangerous particulate matter in the air was the primary cause of the increased risk of lung illness, heart disease, and early death that was caused by excessive SO2 emissions in downwind communities.
There will be an additional expenditure of $36 million to assist school districts in the St. Louis area in transitioning to all-electric school buses that produce zero emissions.
In the event that the targets outlined in the agreement are not fulfilled, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has stated that Ameren will be required to carry out a third project that is centered on energy efficiency upgrades in the metropolitan area of St. Louis.
Ameren was accused by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) of operating the coal-fired power station in violation of Clean Air Act standards for a number of years.
Additionally, the EPA claimed that Ameren neglected to install air emission controls at the Rush Island facility, which is located southeast of Festus for a number of years.
Within the Eastern District of Missouri, the Department of Justice (DOJ) lodged a case against Ameren in 2011. In 2017, the court concluded in support of the DOJ’s accusations and found that Ameren had violated the Clean Air Act.
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Ameren was ordered by the court to comply with the Clean Air requirements at Rush Island and to install controls to reduce emissions.
This order was issued the previous year, five years ago. There were appeals, and after some time had passed, Ameren made the announcement that it would “shutter the plant and did so by Court order in October 2024,” according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
“Nothing can undo the widespread harm to human health that Ameren caused by illegally emitting thousands of tons of harmful pollution into the air that St. Louisans breathe every day,” said the Director of the Enforcement and Compliance Assurance Division of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in a statement. However, the court order that was issued today requires Ameren to pay for projects that will make that air a little cleaner and provide some measure of justice to the public.
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