Ameren-UE has agreed to pay the state 180-million dollars in cash and property to settle the lawsuit stemming from the Taum Sauk Reservoir collapse two years ago. Lengthy negotiation mixed with quantities of political sniping between the Governor and the Attorney General have ended with a Reynolds County judge approving the settlement. The suit had been filed by Attorney General Jay Nixon. The natural resources and conservation departments also filed claims. DNR Director Doyle Childers says the 180-million dollar settlement begins with the 50-million dollars-plus that Ameren already has spent fixing up Johnson Shut-ins State Park, which was devastated by water from the reservoir.
The settlement also establishes a scholarship program for Reynolds County students, pays for development of a new state park on the Current River, and for development of segment of the KATY hiking and biking trail that links the western end of the cross-state trail at Windsor with Kansas City. It does not include the tens of millions of dollars Ameren will spend to rebuild the reservoir. A separate lawsuit by the Missouri Parks Association is trying to keep Ameren from doing that.
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