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Ameren shareholder proposals voted down

 

Ameren shareholders have voted against three proposals that sought to push the company to do more to address environmental risks from its coal-fired power plants.

One of the shareholder proposals focused on the risks of coal ash, a toxic byproduct of coal combustion. Its proponents want Ameren to monitor for groundwater contamination near its coal ash ponds in Missouri - as the company already does in Illinois. Ameren Vice President of Environmental Services, Mike Menne, says that's in the works. "We are in the process of putting together new permits with the Missouri State Department of Natural Resources that will require groundwater monitoring at all of our Missouri plants in the near future," Menne said.

Menne says Ameren has done some limited groundwater testing near drinking water wells in the vicinity of its power plant in Labadie, Missouri. He says those results will be released soon. 

Véronique LaCapra first caught the radio bug while writing commentaries for NPR affiliate WAMU in Washington, D.C. After producing her first audio pieces at the Duke Center for Documentary Studies in N.C., she was hooked! She has done ecological research in the Brazilian Pantanal; regulated pesticides for the Environmental Protection Agency in Arlington, Va.; been a freelance writer and volunteer in South Africa; and contributed radio features to the Voice of America in Washington, D.C. She earned a Ph.D. in ecosystem ecology from the University of California in Santa Barbara, and a B.A. in environmental policy and biology from Cornell. LaCapra grew up in Cambridge, Mass., and in her mother’s home town of Auxerre, France.
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