Missouri environmental groups criticize proposed discharge permits for power plants

Missouri residents are decrying a potential change to state rules that would allow power plants to discharge contaminants into groundwater through a general permit for multiple facilities.

Power plants currently have individual, site-specific permits that allow them to lawfully discharge pollutants like those from coal ash ponds into groundwater.

The Missouri Department of Natural Resources has proposed putting a master general permit in place that would let power plants and other facilities apply it to different sites.

At a public hearing Tuesday, representatives of the Labadie Environmental Organization and other groups criticized the proposal. Many said the permit would make the state’s regulation and monitoring of toxic sites less stringent.

“No utility in the state — or any state — should be able to allow to manage dangerous closed coal ash sites sitting in flood plains with a general permit that allows them to hide their deadly contaminants from regulators and the public,” said Oakville resident Tom Diehl, who lives near the Ameren Meramec Energy Center.