(AGENPARL) – mar 17 dicembre 2024 Issued: Dec 17, 2024 (4:15pm EST)
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Ameren Missouri Ordered to Pay $61M to Mitigate Effects of Illegal Emissions
at Rush Island Power Plant Near Festus
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Region 7 – 11201 Renner Blvd., Lenexa,
KS 66219
Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, and Nine Tribal Nations
Ameren Missouri Ordered to Pay $61M to Mitigate Effects of Illegal Emissions
at Rush Island Power Plant Near Festus
LENEXA, KAN. (DEC. 17, 2024) –Today, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern
District of Missouri entered an order requiring Ameren Missouri to spend $61
million on projects intended to mitigate violations of the federal Clean Air
Act (CAA), including 14 years of unpermitted excess emissions of sulfur
dioxide (SO2). This order resolves years-long litigation between the parties.
Under the terms of the order – which were jointly proposed by Ameren, the
Sierra Club, and the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) on behalf of the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) – the electric utility will spend $25
million to provide vouchers for approximately 125,000 predominantly
low-income, eastern Missouri households to purchase high efficiency
particulate air (HEPA) filters designed to improve household air quality.
The remaining $36 million will be spent on helping St. Louis school districts
switch to zero-emission, all-electric school buses. In the event that certain
benchmarks are not met when implementing the filter and electric school bus
projects, Ameren will implement a third project funding weatherization and
energy efficiency upgrades in the St. Louis metro area.
“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, but today’s court order requires Ameren to
pay for projects that will make that air a little cleaner and provide some
measure of justice to the public,” said EPA Region 7 Enforcement and
Compliance Assurance Division Director David Cozad. “The Court’s order
also marks the end of a dozen years of litigation where, finally, the rule of
law prevailed.”
“Today’s agreement holds Ameren accountable for over 14 years of violations,
which resulted in excessive sulfur dioxide emissions from the largest
coal-fired power producer in Missouri,” said EPA Office of Enforcement and
Compliance Assurance Assistant Administrator David M. Uhlmann.  “Ameren
exposed residents of the metropolitan St. Louis area to unacceptable levels of
pollution.  Today, the company begins to right its wrongs—and EPA once
again makes good on its commitment to seeking meaningful relief for low-income
and disadvantaged communities.”
EPA alleged that Ameren, the largest coal-fired power producer in Missouri,
operated in violation of the CAA for years when it failed to install air
emission controls at its Rush Island power plant, southeast of Festus,
Missouri. In 2011, DOJ filed a complaint against Ameren in the Eastern
District of Missouri. In 2017, the Court ruled in favor of the United States,
finding that Ameren had violated the CAA.
In 2019, the Court ordered Ameren to come into compliance with the CAA at the
Rush Island plant by installing controls to lower SO2 emissions and to
mitigate its years of illegal pollution by installing emissions controls at
another Ameren plant in nearby Labadie, Missouri.
On appeal, the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the order to install
controls at the Rush Island plant, but remanded the decision regarding
mitigation at Labadie to the District Court. However, instead of installing
the controls at Rush Island, Ameren announced it would shutter the plant and
did so by court order in October 2024.
This agreement represents the resolution of the case on remand from the 8th
Circuit and addresses the outstanding mitigation owed by Ameren to the public
from its CAA violations and 14 years of illegal excess emissions from the Rush
Island plant.
Excess SO2 emissions led to increased risks of lung disease, heart disease,
and premature death in downwind communities in the form of harmful particulate
matter.
Today’s resolution also provides targeted relief and health benefits to the
communities most harmed by Rush Island’s pollution.
# # #
Learn more about EPA Region 7
Visit the Region 7 Media page
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