The state’s largest power company hopes to take a big political issue out of the discussion next year. But some legal problems have to be resolved first.
Ameren-UE has hired the contractors to rebuild the upper reservoir of the Taum Sauk power plant…but says it cannot get started until all of the legal issues have been resolved.
Company CEO Tom Voss says the new reservoir will have the same storage volume as the one that collapsed but it will be much better built and stronger, with a spillway and state of the art technology built in.
Ameren officials have been surprised by how much the collapse has become a political issue for next year’s campaign for governor….
Voss wants to resolve legal issues and start reconstructions before the campaign for governor gets really intense next year. He says the company has taken responsibility for the collapse and has never tried to dodge any of its responsibilities to pay for damages and to rebuild the reservoir with stronger walls and modern technology.. He says some of the political rhetoric about the collapse and Ameren-UE’s response to it has been "uncalled for."
He says Ameren already has spent millions of dollars to help clean up and repair Johnson Shut-in State Park and take other remedial action to make repairs in the area devastated by the wave of water that washed down the side of Proffitt Mountain almost two years ago.
Download Bob Priddy’s story (:60 mp3)
