by Amy Bonsall, Labadie Community Organization
LEO was formed in September of 2009 after a member of our local book club became aware of AmerenUE's plans to site a Coal Combustion Waste (CCW) landfill in a flood plain in the Missouri River bottoms next to their Labadie plant, over 400 acres, eventually to reach a height of 100 feet.
Book club members knew little about coal ash, and since then we have learned that many people are blissfully unaware of the toxic residuals from burning coal. Already active in environmental causes, our soon to be President Ginger Gambaro took the bull by the horns and began amassing information and making contacts. Before we knew it, LEO had its first public information session in front of 65 interested members of the community in a local church basement, with one County Commissioner in attendance, and the Campaign to Save Our Bottoms was launched.
AmerenUE then called their own public meeting and we doubt it was a coincidence. LEO made sure word was spreading; through word of mouth, flyers, e-mails and our fledgling website, we succeeded in getting 250+ members of the community to show up on a cold, rainy night in October. Barraged by participants armed with a list of “Questions You May Want to Ask Ameren Tonight” AmerenUE representatives were found to be more often than not vague and paternalistic in their responses, some caught downright flat footed.
In early 2010, LEO member Steve Gambaro was approached by AmerenUE officials at a public hearing concerning AmerenUE's proposed rate increases, and AmerenUE suggested a meeting. The meeting happened in March and we believe AmerenUE had to come away wondering about the wisdom of placing a toxic landfill in a floodplain around this community. To name some of those in attendance: a pediatric physician passionate about the damaging effects of heavy metals on human health, an engineer, two lawyers, one 30 year resident of the community who said “I've been here longer than Ameren has!”, and a good old boy who made it plain spokenly clear that we know Ameren can't guarantee the safety of the landfill, and there is no way we are going to allow it. “We are not going away” he said. The plant manager, the landfill project manager, the operations vice president and the environmental vice president did not succeed in assuaging our concerns. Not one bit. We believe we raised theirs though, as high as a 500 year flood.
We have not succeeded yet in stopping AmerenUE from damaging our Missouri River Bottoms and potentially polluting the drinking water of the millions of downstream residents but this I can tell you, we are not going away.
Please contact us at www.leomo.info to help and sign our on-line petition.