Coal Ash Landfill Opponents Call for Groundwater Testing at Meramec Energy Center

Residents and Sierra Club members asked the St. Louis County Council to consider ordering groundwater testing at Ameren’s Meramec Energy Center in Oakville. The energy producer proposed a coal ash landfill for the site last year, and a movement against the project has been steadily growing.

Ameren officials want to build new facilities for coal waste because its current storage is running out of room. The coal waste depository would be located just over a mile from Rogers Elementary in the Mehlville School District. 

The Missouri Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal campaign organizer Sara Edgar has hosted community forums focused on clean alternatives. During Tuesday's meeting she read a letter on behalf of Karl Frank, Jr. She told Patch around 140 petition signatures were added to the rolling number they’ve submitted to Councilman Steve Stenger and County Executive Charley Dooley.

Tuesday opponents showed up to the meeting in yellow t-shirts reading “Beyond Coal.” Mizzou student Alexandra Rather said she was inspired to intern with the Sierra Club here in Oakville after learning last year she has asthma.

She described her first asthma attack. “Last year I was study for final exams with a friend of mine, at the student center, when suddenly it felt like someone stuffed their hands in my chest and squeezed my lungs together. It felt like trying to breathe through a straw.”

Her wheezing bouts have become more frequent since coming to St. Louis, she said.

Tom Diehl, who presented Stenger and Dooley with letters from community leaders and school administrators, also made a case for children’s health. He explored the potential effects of groundwater contamination and air pollution. As a former Mehlville School District Board of Education member, he said he heard the frequency of asthma in the school district was “much higher than would be expected in our community.”

“Our parents and teachers can tell oyu their own stories about how asthma has impacted their families and classrooms. Parents of former students have shared how kids came in from the playground at Rogers Elementary with their hands black…” Diehl said.

Groundwater testing would allow the community to know what they’re facing, he added.

Letters were also submitted to the Department of Natural Resources, according to group members.

The effort communicates information and opportunities to attend upcoming meetings on their website and No Coal Ash Landfill in Oakville Facebook group. They’re asking St. Louis County residents outside of Oakville to lend their voice.

“Why? South County-Meramec is next,” the group writes in a call for Patch readers to attend a hearing on a similar issue on June 25.

• Learn more about the proposed coal ash landfill: ·      
• Ameren Proposes New Storage Facility at Oakville Plant
• Mehlville Parent: No to Coal Ash Landfill Near Elementary School
• South County Residents Spreading Awareness of Proposed Coal Ash Landfill
• Coal Ash Landfill Is Subject of Sierra Club Panel