Category: Environment

Ameren and the shame that is Taum Sauk

Post author By Shelley Powers
Post date June 4, 2007

A couple of days ago, the Southeast Missourian did a fluff piece on how important Ameren is to the Lesterville school system:

Earlene Fox, superintendent of the Lesterville School District, said many entities are trying to decide how much to fine Ameren, turning the issue into a political hot button.

Meanwhile the livelihood of Lesterville’s residents is in jeopardy as a result of the December 2005 breach at the Taum Sauk Reservoir that caused significant flooding in the Johnson’s Shut-Ins State Park.

This has been typical of Ameren, getting friendly folk in Reynolds County to trot out the Lesterville school system and jobs in order to put pressure on the political figures running for governor–Attorney General Nixon and Governor Blunt–to settle the Ameren/Taum Sauk situation quickly. What’s different is that both Nixon and Blunt are working together on the issue of a fine for Ameren, so why is the school system being dutifully trotted out this time?

Well, the answer came out today, in a story released by the AP and appearing in papers and other publications in the country (and outside the country). According to the St. Louis Post Dispatch, the gauges that were supposed to turn off the pumping station when the water was high and in danger of overtopping the dam were not faulty: they had been deliberately moved.

Yes, basically the safety measures to prevent the dam from breaking were deliberately circumvented by Ameren officials. Why? Money. More water meant more profitable electricity being generated.

Interviews with Ameren employees by The Associated Press over the past year have confirmed Ameren’s practice of filling the reservoir as high as possible because every foot of water represented profitable electricity generation. That sentiment was also made clear in the patrol’s report.

Taum Sauk Superintendent Richard Cooper told patrol investigators he felt pressure from his bosses after he ordered the water level to be slightly lowered to prevent an overflow in October 2005.

“Cooper stated that he had people above him and below him that wanted to know what was going on. Since the upper reservoir was set two feet lower, that was resulting in producing less mega watts (sic) of electricity,” the report said.

The amount of water that rushed down the mountain when the dam broke, a billion gallons, was five times of the amount of water of the Johnston Flood, the worst ‘natural’ disaster to impact this country. If the Taum Sauk dam break had happened in summer, hundreds of people would have died. If the lower reservoir had not held, whether the Lesterville school has a new roof or not would be moot.

All of this, so that the Ameren officials could pump in an additional two feet of water, and generate that much more electricity. Even when officials knew of the risk involved.

In addition to tampering with the safety equipment, the evidence was tampered with after the break, as the gauges were removed from the dam and left lying next to the wall before Ameren ‘allowed’ DNR agents in to examine them. Ameren also refused to provide requested evidence to the State Patrol.

No criminal charges are being filed because the State Patrol supposedly cannot find the person who moved the gauges originally, or removed them from the wall after. Of course not: Ameren isn’t cooperating, and wasn’t forced to cooperate.

Neither Nixon, in his position as Attorney General, nor Governor Blunt are pursuing any further investigation, though obviously criminal actions have taken place–and continue to take place, with Ameren refusing to provide materials demanded by the State Patrol. After the public relations campaign run by Ameren and supported by some community leaders in Reynolds County, to do so is to brand both as being ‘against schools’. With an upcoming election, neither the Republican candidate nor the Democratic has the courage to seek true justice.

I’m sure, though, that Ameren will provide a nice visitor center at Johnson’s. Maybe a new gym for the school, too. The company is such a good servant of the people.

Update.

The Public Service Commission, which recently granted Ameren’s request for a rate increase in Missouri, have re-opened their investigation of Ameren’s conduct based on the AP story.

Ameren has come out with its own press release, stating that the story did not have any new information from that of the FERC report a year earlier.

However, there is considerably new information: the FERC report focused primarily on the physical evidence and repercussions of decisions made. At no time was economic motivation discussed, nor was the fact that the gauges were removed after the dam break recorded — or at least not as far as I can see in the report.

Should there be more investigation? This state seems incapable of dealing with this situation and Ameren. I imagine the best anyone can hope for is to hit Ameren where it will hurt–the company’s pocketbook–and then keep the company on a short leash. A very short leash.

Tags Taum Sauk

Environment Weather

Smile You Being Watched

Post author By Shelley Powers
Post date May 14, 2007

Saturday I drove on Highway 100 to Hermann, crossed the Missouri, and returned using 94. The weather was sunny and mild, which makes it hard to take a flood, seriously. Luckily for the people of Hermann, and all points east, several levees broke along the Missouri further north and west and the level of water didn’t rise to be a threat. Not so luckily for towns such as Big Lake, which ended up under water.

If this had been 1927, I would have been suspicious of the levees breaking. Back then, people from one town would sneak over to the levees protecting homes and fields upriver along the Mississippi and would seek to blow them up in order to protect their own homes. It’s a measure of how far along we’ve come as a people that no community would even consider such action today, even if it makes sense to do such–flooding a smaller community such as Big Lake to protect larger, such as Jefferson City or St. Charles.

At a boat launch along a tributary that flows into the Missouri, I chatted with a fisherman who had come up to check the water levels, and then decided to do a little fishing. Though boats were barred from the Missouri, they were safe along the smaller streams.

boaster on flooded tributory
minor flooding at park

Hermann is a charming town with several interesting and old buildings, most in excellent condition. It wasn’t a particularly friendly town, but I imagine the people were stressed from the worries of the flood all through out the week. By the types of shops and the number of hotels, it’s a town that would welcome tourists. It also has a winery, and it looked like restoration of a beautiful riverfront hotel was underway.

The water came up to, and overlapped, the town’s waterfront park and flowed into what was probably a small creek running through the town. The creek’s banks were overflowed, but no homes were damaged or threatened.

Farm fields were inundated all throughout the region. The flooding isn’t a problem to farm land, because it brings new top soil. However, this was yet another delay on the growing season and we’ve had so many already this year.

Along the way on 94, I did see homes that would probably receive some water damage. Most were old mobile homes, with heaps of rusted junk in the yard. One might say, what loss would there be with places such as these, but they were homes for someone–usually someone who can least afford the damage.

flooded farm field

flooded farm fence

flooded flood warning sign

At one spot, where the water threatened to flood over 94, I had stopped by a flood warning sign to take pictures of the river. As I looked down the very short hill, I noticed snakes swimming past–dozens! They had all been drowned out by their ‘homes’ and were trying to find a place to climb up the hill. Even a mild flood has consequences to the native flora and fauna. Consequences both good and bad because such flooding is responsible for the rich soil that keeps the state green, and the animals fat and happy.

Snake swimming for high ground

Old Car

Keep Out

Back in Hermann, across from the waterfront park was a colorful bait shop that was cut off from the road leading to the park. I walked across the tracks and to the front of the building, but couldn’t continue further–there was a locked gate across the path, prevent access to the tracks. The older gentleman who lived there yelled out to a couple of young folk to check his mailbox, because he couldn’t get to it.

The fence had a sign that started with, “Smile you being watch” and all throughout the yard, painted American flags with “God bless USA”.

Hermann flooding

Ye Old Bait Shop

Bait Shop from the Front

I never noticed the levees, as much as I did with this drive. Before, they were part of the landscape–regular hills among the natural, irregular ones. However, when you’re driving along next to a levee that’s protecting the road from rapidly running, huge quantities of water, you notice every single one. What was stunning was realizing that the levees miles away from the roads were built because of the flood of 1993, and that most of the road I traveled on Saturday had been underwater a scant 14 years before.

Tags flooding, Missouri

Climate Change Weather

Water Report

Post author By Shelley Powers
Post date May 8, 2007

Recovered from the Wayback Machine.

The area near Rocheport put out a request for volunteers to begin sandbagging. I had to take Zoe into vet today and couldn’t go. To be honest, I doubt I’d be able to keep up for that long, anyway. I can lift 50 pounds without a problem. I doubt I could do it for hours at a time.

There’s a very calm and controlled attitude about the coming “Wave of Water” as it’s being called. Some communities are vulnerable, and these are being evacuated and sandbagged. However, after the 1993 flood, this state learned its lesson. Many of the homes that were in bottom land or flood prone areas were bought out and turned into open areas where flooding won’t be a problem. Levees were raised, and floodwalls and gates installed in other areas. We could hit close to the 1993 levels on the Missouri but have no where near the damage. Water will overrun highways in certain areas, but business and homes should, for the most part, be safe. Unfortunately, crop land is going to be impacted. I would hate to be a farmer this year.

However, if we get to a certain level, and it’s borderline whether we’ll get to that level, larger communities such as St. Charles do run a real risk of extensive flood damage.

The Missouri and other rivers rising to flood levels are enough to impact the Mississippi, but it shouldn’t rise to a risk level–no more than moderate flood level, which isn’t that unusual. The levees and the floodwalls should be enough to contain it.

Our home is inland, and the only thing that could threaten it is if the Mississippi rises to the ’93 levels. Water levels that high would send water into the River Des Peres drainage channel and that could pose a real risk to our area. However, that’s not a threat with the current expected levels.

In the next few days, I’m going to try and get some photos of the rising waters, though I may run into road blocks. However, there’s so many areas where one can get close to the rivers that I doubt all will be blocked. I’ve not seen the Missouri or Mississippi at flood levels. They’re such magnificent rivers anyway, I can’t imagine how they’ll be 10 or more feet above their normal levels.

Insects Photography Places Plants

Easter photos

Post author By Shelley Powers
Post date April 7, 2007

I spent several hours this afternoon at the Botanical Gardens, which is becoming my typical Easter activity. It was a really terrific day, still cold, but pleasant when wearing a jacket over a flannel shirt. It was sunny, but with clouds, which can make the best pictures. I went later, when most people have gone home.

I managed to catch my second bee picture of the year. What was cause for concern is he was the only bee I saw my entire trip.

I also decided to get a couple of landscape photos, show some of the architecture of the place. The first is one of the administration buildings–a lovely brick with classic lines. The second is Tower House, where the Garden’s founder, Shaw, used to live.

The maze in the foreground of the second picture is tall enough for most people not to be able to see over the top.

The Garden was at the end of its spring blooming season, with crabapple and Kanzan cherry trees at peak.

I was surprised to see bluebells. That was the oddest thing about this season–very early spring flowers are still in bloom, though the late flowers, like tulips, are almost gone.

Unfortunately, due to the record breaking highs, followed immediately by several days of hard freeze, most of the garden’s fruit trees were loosing their buds. The latest report on the impact of this weather is that Missouri and Illinois have lost anywhere from 50% to close to 100% of this year’s crops for some varieties of fruit trees, winter wheat, early corn, and much of the wine grapes.

It’s been a devastating spring for this area.

I chatted with another photographer at the park, a gentleman from Michigan. He mentioned how the colds we were suffering don’t impact on their fruit trees and plants, primarily because the weather doesn’t fluctuate so much. The Great Lakes help maintain a consistent temperature in the surrounding areas: cold in winter, mild much of the rest of the year.

I’ve decided to make the “Lake trip” later this summer, because I’m not sure I can handle a Missouri August this year.

No matter what the circumstances, the Gardens are, and remain, beautiful–thanks in part to the critters, including this handsome grackle. Still no picture of my fox, though. Someday.

The dogwoods in the rhodie garden were disappointing, another tree impacted by the weather. However, this lovely Dicentra spectablis was still in excellent form. This is a flower that needs a closer look, as it’s much more complex than would seem from a distance.

I actually managed to capture a picture of a raptor overhead. It’s not perfect, but you can see the details of its head and feathers. Lovely bird, death to the poor finches, though.

My favorite shot from today (other than the building photos) is of this lovely tulip, still in excellent shape.

Critters Photography

The Wasp

Post author By Shelley Powers
Post date April 7, 2007

Paper wasps are quite common here in Missouri. Unlike other types of wasps, they’re not very aggressive, except around their nests. If you threaten a wasp’s nest, or agitate them in some way, they can sting and like other wasps, they can string repeatedly. Their stings are very painful (3 on the Schmidt Sting Pain index, or “Like spilling a beaker of Hydrochloric acid on a paper cut”), and if you’re allergic to stings, as I am, can be quite serious.

When the paper wasp started buzzing around behind the screens up in the corner of the french doors out to the deck, we didn’t think much of it. It wasn’t until we saw her starting her nest that we knew we had to get rid of it and quick. You can’t have a paper wasp nest next to a door; not if you want to use the door.

However, you can’t knock the nest down when they’re building it. The old, “Busy as a bee. Angry as a wasp” thing. The day before yesterday, when she took off to get more material, I quickly went out with the broom and knocked the nest down and as quickly ran back inside, shutting the door behind me. She returned with the material, long gray streamer behind her, and buzzed all over looking for the nest. For over an hour she flew around in front of the door and around the corner. Eventually she landed, and sat for a couple of hours where her nest was. When she made motions of starting to re-build, I pounded on the door to disturb her and eventually she took off.

Yesterday, she returned to the same corner and again, and sat there for a couple of hours. With today’s storm, she hasn’t been back.

When she was building her nest, I did grab a couple of careful photos using my telephoto lens. It wasn’t until I processed the photo today that I noticed her nest had one tiny egg in it.

wasp and nest