Ameren to pay $61 million for air pollution. Money for electric buses, air filters
ST. LOUIS — Ameren reached an agreement Wednesday to pay $61 million dollars to compensate the public for years of illegal air pollution emitted from its Rush Island coal plant in Jefferson County that retired last month.
A court filing Wednesday detailed the plan reached between the St. Louis-based electric utility, the U.S. Department of Justice, and the Sierra Club, more than a decade after the case was filed and years after Ameren was found guilty.
Once final, the agreement would compel Ameren to use the money for two projects. One would budget $25 million to support the distribution of air purifiers to residential customers, with a priority for low-income households.
The other would use $36 million "to promote the transition to electric school buses for schools in the St. Louis metropolitan and surrounding areas with the charging stations necessary to support these vehicles," the filing said.
Starting in the coming days, the settlement agreement will be subjected to a 30-day public comment period, with any comments set to be evaluated by the Department of Justice.
"The agreement with the Department of Justice resolves the case," said Ameren in an emailed statement. "The proposed settlement will fund the implementation of two mitigation relief programs, in addition to retiring the energy center. The settlement must now be approved by the Court."
Completion of the two projects would take a few years, the Sierra Club said in a statement.
The Sierra Club's statement blasted Ameren for modifying Rush Island's generators from 2007 to 2010 without proper permits, illegally allowing the facility to produce more power and emit more air pollution. The plant also lacked widely adopted pollution controls, called scrubbers , used to negate harmful pollutants like sulfur dioxide.
"Ameren broke the law and now it has to pay, but its money cannot bring back the innocent lives that utility executives cut short or repair the environmental harms of the illegal and toxic air pollution spewed by the coal plant," Jenn DeRose, an organizer with the Sierra Club's Missouri chapter, said in the statement. "Civic leaders need to understand that Ameren's unethical business decisions harm our communities."
Energy and environment
