The Ameren Missouri coal-fired power plant in Labadie is the second worst mercury polluter in the nation, according to a recently study released by Environment Missouri, a nonprofit advocacy organization.
Researchers with the environmental group analyzed new U.S. Environmental Protection Agency data in the study, “America’s Biggest Mercury Polluters — How Cleaning Up the Dirtiest Power Plants Will Protect Public Health,” released this week.
The EPA accounts for the emissions in its annual toxics release inventory. That inventory utilizes self- reported data from power plants.
The Labadie power plant produced 1,527 pounds of airborne mercury emissions in 2010, according to the study, second only to the Big Brown Steam Electric Station and Lignite Mine in Fairfield, Texas. That site produced 1,610 pounds last year.
As a whole, Missouri power plants emitted 3,835 pounds of airborne mercury in 2010.
Ameren was responsible for 3,699 pounds as a company.
The company operates in Missouri and Illinois.
The company’s other plants in Missouri, including the Rush Island plant in Festus, the Meramec plant in St. Louis and the Portage Des Sioux plant in West Alton, ranked second through fourth for mercury pollution in the state in 2010 respectively.
Those facilities ranked 36th, 45th and 61st nationally.
Mercury from power plants is generally emitted through smokestacks. The mercury then falls to the ground in rain or snow and contaminates waterways.
It can then accumulate in fish.
Eating contaminated fish is the main source of human exposure to mercury.
The heavy metal can cause neurological damage to people, especially during early childhood development.
“Parents in Missouri shouldn’t have to worry that their children’s bodies are toxic dumping grounds,” said Ted Mathys, state advocate for Environment Missouri.
“The EPA is moving forward to protect our children’s health from toxic mercury pollution and we can’t let big polluters stand in the way,” Mathys said in a release announcing the report.
Mathys said a single drop of mercury is enough to make fish in a 25-acre lake unsafe to eat.
He said Sens. Claire McCaskill and Roy Blunt both should support pending EPA regulations which would change air toxins standards, including limiting mercury for the first time.
“Once fully implemented, the new standard as proposed would reduce overall power plant emissions of mercury by more than 90 percent,” Mathys said.
That is, if Congress doesn’t block the EPA from introducing the new standards, he said.
“Congress and industry lobbyists are working to keep the EPA from doing its job,” Mathys said.
The federal agency estimates that if the proposed standard is implemented, the reduced emissions could prevent 17,000 premature deaths, 11,000 heart attacks, 12,000 emergency room visits, 120,000 cases of childhood asthma and 850,000 sick days a year.
Sneaky Pete posted at 1:46 pm on Tue, Nov 29, 2011.
Certainly there is no excuse for high levels of mercury emissions, and had the Bush administration not attempted to impose mercury limits that were inconsistent with the Clean Air Act, we would have had control of these emissions years ago. But, it is grossly ignorant and unfair to focus on Labadie as a particularly egregious emitter of mercury. Labadi has 4 600 MW units in one location. Note the 3 stacks in the picture, Units 1 and 2 have their own stacks, Units 3 & 4 share the larger third stack. The other Ameren plants listed have only two units, so of course their total emissions of all pollutants are lower. Had half the Labadie units been located somewhere else, they would not have been nearly as high on the list. The Missourian reporter should have noted this in the story as the data is certainly available on EPA's databases and the number of stacks should have been as strong hint. Dig a little deeper next time folks....
todd33 posted at 7:31 am on Tue, Nov 29, 2011.
People should get all the facts about how mercury is released into the atmosphere before adhearing to these left wing eviromental wacks. They fail to mention that over 200,000 tons of mercury is ammitted into the air naturally each year. Mercury is a natural element that already exisist in the soil, water, and air. Elements cannot be created nor destroyed. Yes the power plaints stir mercury into the atmosphere, but they do not produce more mercury.
If you hate Ammoren so much then turn off your heat, lights, tvs, (all of you electricity) this winter. I'm guessing you won't do that.
redbarn posted at 9:37 pm on Mon, Nov 28, 2011.
Good piece Missourian. I think you scooped TV! Saw a piece this evening on the mercury report on KMOV. People are getting information they need to make an informed decision about if and how the County, industry and elected officials have put us all at risk. It was clear to those of us who attended county hearings on the landfill regulation that the floodplain was the worst place to landfilll waste...especially coal ash waste. No more information. Less than a month ago a site in Wisconsin collapsed into Lake Michigan. It was decades of coal waste both landfilled and impounded that gave way and dumped into the adjacent body of water. Coal waste contains known carcinogens and disease causing heavy metals. Why would we ever landfill it near rivers and drinking water? Now we hear how the company we are supposed to trust has been operating a facility that emits some of the highest amounts of mercury in the nation...and that waste will end up in our floodplain? We already heard that it operates ponds with minimal protections, leaking berms and expired permits and that DNR has done very little to investigate or take action. Who is enforcing our laws? Are there laws? Do we have representation? I am pretty certain that many of us will be voting differently next fall.
Angeletc posted at 7:48 am on Mon, Nov 28, 2011.
.(cont)
........or just throwing ash in their faces
Angeletc posted at 7:44 am on Mon, Nov 28, 2011.
It's cheaper for Ameren to appear to be the good corporate citizen by making its donations to the United Way and Mercy Hospital than to fix the pollution at their Labadie power plant. It's called pulling the wool over the citizens' eyes.
LandLuver posted at 8:14 pm on Sun, Nov 27, 2011.
Wake Up Franklin County. Wake Up St. Charles County, Jefferson County and all points east. You cannot escape this toxin - one of the most harmful known to man. The St. Louis metropolitan area is ringed with coal-fired plants that pollute EVERYONE'S environment not just the community of Labadie. Those of you who think "it's not my problem. I don't live in Labadie." Think again.
All the while Ameren Missouri is making headlines in The Missourian for donating $100,000+ to the United Way and donating money to St. John's Mercy Hospital, they are - year after year - quietlly and knowingly unleashing dangerous amounts of a known neurotoxin into the environment. 1 in 6 newborn babies are born with harmful amounts of mercury already in their innocent bodies. Unnecessarily - since this can be prevented.
Ameren Missouri is doing everything they can to avoid installing the controls necessary to reduce by 90% the amount of mercury that is emitted. Congress, bought and paid for by big polluters, is poised to give mercury polluters a pass -- using the false argument that it will hurt the economy. Baloney. We don't have to choose between the economy and protecting the environment and human health. It is a false, trumped up argument designed to paralyze the people from rising up and insisting on fairness. We, the people and especially those communities who are located near coal fired power plants, are being sacrificed. Call Claire and Roy - tell them to stand up to pollluters. Good luck with Roy. Try Claire at 202-221-6154.
Add this to fact that Ameren has allowed 50,000 gallons of toxic coal ash effluent to leak from impoundmentsfor 19 years and there is a clear and powerful picture of just what kind of company Ameren Missouri really is. Commissioner Wilson claims Ameren has been a good neighbor... nonsense. The good neighbor doctrine is not alive and well in Franklin County unless you are a Commissioner, the tax collector or the United Way.
Kate posted at 11:48 am on Sun, Nov 27, 2011.
Thank You Evin Fritschle for keeping the public informed about this very frightening situation we are exposed to everyday. I was watching the Ameren Thanksgiving parade thinking, " Why don't they use this extra money to protect us instead of trying to make it seem as though they are good neighbors" . They really need to be ashamed . Now they have permission to put all their "toxic waste" in a flood plain. I am not sure they can ever be stopped. Look out Missouri.