Tagged: landfill

A local environmental group filed an appeal this morning in an ongoing effort to keep Ameren from building a coal ash landfill next to its power plant in Labadie.

Last month, a circuit court judge ruled that the Franklin County Commission was in the right when it approved a zoning amendment that would allow construction of the landfill.

But a group of 12 Labadie families, led by the grassroots Labadie Environmental Organization, is challenging that decision.

A fire has been smoldering underground at the Bridgeton landfill for more than two years. People living in the area have complained of strong chemical smells, and of symptoms including burning eyes and headaches.

Earlier this month, the Missouri Department of Natural Resources tested the air there for toxic chemicals. The DNR took samples on two separate days at six sites near the landfill, including some in a residential area.

Labadie, Mo. is a town about 35 miles from St. Louis that might be described as “quaint” and “quiet.” But for the past two years, a controversy between some town residents and Ameren Missouri, an electric company that has a power plant situated in the Missouri River bottoms near Labadie, has sparked a lively local discourse. It concerns the ash that’s leftover from burning coal at the plant. Johanna Mayer has this report.