State Approves AmerenUE Plan to Restore Black River

The Departmentof Natural Resources likes AmerenUE’s plan for restoring part of the Black River below its Taum Sauk Reservoir. The segment flowing through Johnson Shut-Ins state park was damaged when the upper Taum Sauk reservoir collapsed last December. The area being restored is between the Shut-Ins and the scour channel left by the reservoir water. DNR ordered the stream restoration work to begin soon. The state reopened the park this year, but will close it to the public after October 1st. The reservoir broke in mid-December last year, sending more than a billion gallons of water down Taum Sauk Moutain into the Black River and the Johnson Shut-Ins.