June 2, 2014
By Judy Dasovich, Chair of the White River Group
The White River Group met with Springfield City Councilman Craig Hosmer in February. About 30 concerned citizens attended the meeting to make him aware of our concerns regarding the proposed coal ash landfill site. Our municipal utilitiy, City Utilities, operates under the direction of the City Council. Our points:
1. The Missouri Department of Natural Resources (DNR) denied all six of CU’s proposed landfill sites in the preliminary site investigation. All six received a rating of “severe
collapse potential.”
2. All six sites are on highly permeable limestone. CU has confirmedat least five catastrophic sinkhole collapses that have occurred within the existing coal ash storage basins. These are geologically similar to the proposed sites.
3. CU has not performed ground water testing at their existing coal ash landfills since 1987 despite being asked to do so by the MO DNR as recently as October 2013. Coal ash is known to contain multiple heavy metals such as mercury and arsenic that are toxic to human beings (especially children) and other living things.
4. Trending faults provide a highly permeable pathway that can provide connectivity to the deep Ozarks aquifer. This supplies a four state area with water. Dye traces showed that water from the Twitty site shows up in Rader Springs and local wells. There are seven springs in the area of the proposed sites that ultimately connect with Wilson’s Creek, the James River and Table Rock Lake.
5. CU pays dues (in 2014, $88,00 of ratepayer money) to belong to MAMU, the Missouri Alliance of Municipal Utilities, which contributed money to Lincoln Hough’s campaign in the past Mr. Hosmer was receptive to the information. He pointed out that 3 of the nine city council members were sympathetic to these concerns, but we would need to convince the other six.
To that end, we are planning a presentation for the June 9 to the Springfield City Council. We will keep you informed of our progress.