Ameren Meeting

Last night about 60 people from Lesterville meet at the school with representatives of Ameren. The meeting was conducted by Dave Fitzgerald. Dave was the Taum Sauk plant manager from 1999 to 2002 and was known by most of those at the meeting. With Dave were five other employees of Ameren including a VP, manager, and engineers.

It was reported that Ameren had hired an engineering firm from the east coast to first determine why the overflow sensors failed and then to make recommendations on rebuilding the upper reservoir. It was felt that this work would take all of 2006 and that if the decision was made to rebuild that work would begin in 2007 and be completed sometime in 2008.

Ameren stated that they were committed to restoring Johnson's Shut-Ins State Park. They have begun to remove soil and trees from the roadways and parking lots. As of the 5th they had removed 2000 cubic yards of soil. They stated that as they get closer to the shut-ins that most of the work will have to be done by hand. They are also draining the six acre pond that was formed at the base of the mountain by the force of the water coming down the mountain. This is being done to make sure that any silt that is in the bottom of this pond is not washed into the East Fork.

Ameren has applied for permission to treat the lower reservoir with a chemical (floculant) that will cause the fine clay particles that are suspended in the water to clump together and fall to the bottom of the reservoir. At present all the water being released from the lower reservoir is clouded with this fine clay and clouding the river for miles down stream. They felt that the only action that could clean the river below Lesterville was to hope for a couple of spring floods. So for those of us that love our clear river we hope for continued mild and dry weather through March so that the work can continue on the Shut-Ins and then a couple of good April/May floods to clean out the lower river near the lodges and campgrounds.