The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has turned down Ameren’s bid for federal stimulus money to rebuild the upper reservoir of the Taum Sauk hydroelectric plant.
The utility asked the Commission to certify the increased capacity at the plant in southeast Missouri’s Reynolds County as a clean energy project. Ameren said the new upper reservoir leaks less, can be operated at higher capacity in winter and produces more energy, but the Commission says that’s not good enough to qualify the site for the federal green jobs dollars.
The pool is the same one that ruptured in 2005, dumping over 1 billion gallons of water that scoured the mountainside and damaged Johnsons Shut-Ins State Park.
