According to a Missouri Department of Natural Resources press release:
Missouri Department of Natural Resources Director Doyle Childers today offered Ameren a second settlement agreement for the damages from the Dec. 14, 2005, Taum Sauk reservoir breach. The second proposed settlement, which includes the claims of the departments of Natural Resources and Conservation, totals $115 million plus the property rights to the Rock Island Railroad right-of-way and Church Mountain. These numbers are based on extensive evaluat ion of the damages by the Department of Natural Resources and its expert consultant Industrial Economics. It includes elements of Ameren's April 11 counter offer.
Childers indicated the State of Missouri was ready today to work through the details of this second proposed settlement.
"Ameren's counter offer was insufficient on many fronts," Childers said in a letter he hand-delivered to AmerenUE. In the letter to President and Chief Executive Officer Thomas R. Voss, Childers writes, "The time has come for us to move forward. Ameren should pay what it owes, and we can get our communities back in order."
Ameren rejected the State of Missouri's first settlement offer for civil damages, proposed Dec. 6, 2006. Today, the State of Missouri rejected Ameren's April 11 offer, which included a $10 million cash payment to the Missouri Attorney General for unspecified purposes.
"That is entirely inappropriate," Childers said. "Our second settlement proposal demands that the $10 million cash payment go to the Reynolds County Community Damages Fund."
Childers demanded that Ameren settle the case in the following manner:
1) Complete $40 million of future restoration and remediation, with an additional $5 million for future monitoring and maintenance, on an agreed-to work schedule;
2) Pay $48 million for natural resources damages and loss of recreational use;
3) Pay a reimbursement to the State of Missouri of $2 million for loss of income from Johnson's Shut-Ins State Park, the loss of timber resources, and state oversight of the reservoir reconstruction;
4) Pay a civil penalty for water pollution violations of not less than $10 million to the Reynolds County School Fund;
5) Pay a one-time sum for local community damages of $10 million into a Reynolds County Community Damages fund controlled by Reynolds County elected officials;
6) Grant a permanent license for the Rock Island Railroad right-of-way to complete the KATY Trail from Windsor to Pleasant Hill, which will virtually complete the trail from St. Louis to Kansas City;
7) Lease Church Mountain to the State of Missouri for 50 years;
8) Agree to a consent order that provides for compliance with work schedules and all applicable environmental laws.
Johnson's Shut-Ins State Park will reopen when AmerenUE has completed necessary work within the park, including extensive infrastructure reconstruction and environmental cleanup, to provide the quality experience that visitors have come to expect in Missouri state parks. The department hopes that the park will be open and fully operational sometime in 2008.
For news releases on the Web, visit www.dnr.mo.gov/newsrel. For a complete listing of the department's upcoming meetings, hearings and events, visit the department's online calendar at www.dnr.mo.gov/calendar/search.do.
Connecting the Katy Trail to Kansas City is part of MoBikeFed's ongoing campaign to "complete the Katy Trail" by connecting it state-line to state-line and also connect it to nearby population centers all along its length.
By far the most feasible way to connect the Katy to Kansas City is via the Rock Island railroad corridor, unused since the early 1980s. The corridor is control by AmerenUE and the Taum Sauk negotiations represent the best opportunity in over a decade to negotiate trail use of the corridor.
MoBikeFed feels that rights for trail use of the corridor can be given while still protecting Ameren's legitimate business interests in the corridor.
