EPA to Declare Ameren's Largest Coal Plant as Air Quality Compliant, Critics Disagree

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's proposal to declare Ameren Missouri's largest coal-fired power plant as compliant to crucial air quality regulation was met with criticism from some St. Louis-area environmental watchdogs.

The approval of the EPA proposal would allow Ameren Corporation to forego the installation of pollution control "scrubbers," which reduces the amount of sulfur dioxide emission from Labadie Energy Center Plant in Franklin County.

Critics Decry: The Plant Has No Sulfur Dioxide Scrubber

Critics say that the proposal's approval would conveniently declare that the Labadie plant has no sulfur dioxide emissions.

Critics say that the EPA's move would mean Ameren can get away with not installing the scrubbers, thereby making Labadie Energy Center Plant the largest coal plant in the country without the equipment. The scrubber is supposed to reduce sulfur dioxide emissions. Without it, EPA would not possibly know how the plant may affect air pollution, critics say.

Watchdogs also point that that Ameren Corporation, the owner of Labadie Energy Center Plant, has not installed air monitoring equipment in areas where winds primarily push emissions: the large arc southeast of the Franklin County Facility. Instead, air monitoring equipment is installed in places where terrain and weather reduce the concentration of sulfur dioxide. Ameren has consistently rejected such proposals.

The placement of air monitors around the Ameren plant has caused controversy over the past years.

Andy Knott of Sierra Club's Beyond Coal Campaign said that the proposal is "deeply disturbing", and scrubbers to reduce sulfur dioxide emissions has not yet been installed. EPA's approval would make the coal plant the largest unscrubbed coal plant in the country. He further stressed that Ameren is getting scot-free from the endorsement with no retirement date in the next ten years.

Ameren Defends EPA

Ameren, on the other hand, is supporting the EPA's position. It has argued that the plant has a "very robust monitoring system". Steve Whitworth, Ameren's senior director of environmental policy and analysis, says that the monitoring system was not done arbitrarily, but says "it's a very exacting process."

Since 2017, 52 areas all over the country that have previously failed safe pollution standards or were "unclassifiable" have been ruled as compliant with the air quality rule by the EPA.

Ameren's comments, which were submitted to the Missouri Department of Natural Resources, argued that monitors were placed considerable input and collaboration with DNR and the EPA, and were placed at the point of maximum impacts based on two separate modeling efforts.

The EPA will receive public comments on the proposal 30 days after the motion is entered in the Federal Registry. Critics, on the other hand, vowed to fight the approval of the scheme.

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