Black River News reports on the Ameren/FERC meeting yesterday that discussed rebuilding the Taum Sauk reservoir. I thought the following interesting:
The public comment part of the meeting consisted of about a dozen local citizens. For the most part is was an Ameren love fest, with everyone imploring FERC of approve the dam rebuild because the Ameren taxes were so important to the Lesteville area. One person did make a lot of comments about the problems in the East Fork and problems with past decisions that were made by Ameren. Another speaker asked FERC to ignore the “environmental wackos and urban intellectuals” and only listen to the real local people. The meeting only lasted half the allowed time.
(emph. mine)
I’m not sure if I qualify as an environmental wacko, or an urban intellectual. Frankly, I find both labels to be flattering, so I would be happy to claim both.
Thing is, anything to do with a river is not just a local event. River quality can have major impact on an entire region, state, or even multiple states and countries. Water is the great connector, and Missouri is connected by lots and lots of water.
I thought it interesting that Ameren’s FERC meeting came about at the exact same time as the more publicly compelling meetings about utilities rates. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch and most other media were full of the latter, and never a mention of the former. That’s short sighted, and not particularly thorough.
The only ones who seem to be discussing anything related to Taum Sauk and Ameren are Black River News and me, and I don’t think my comments are necessarily appreciated in Lesterville.
I think I’m going to hit the DNR up for a photo tour of the Shut-Ins. I wonder if the freedom of information act would cover such? Since nothing is coming out about the state of the clean-up from either Ameren or the DNR, and the media is too busy covering utility rates.
