Author
Compensation for St. Louis victims of nuclear waste stripped from federal defense bill
U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley said Thursday he would do everything he could to stop a federal defense spending bill after a provision offering compensation to Americans exposed to decades-old radioactive waste was removed. Speaking on the floor of the Senate, the Missouri Republican called the decision to remove compensation for Americans who have suffered rare […]
Kansas and Missouri have 256,000 lead pipes. EPA wants them removed within 10 years
Utilities in Kansas and Missouri would have to pull hundreds of thousands of lead pipes out of the ground within 10 years under a proposed rule the Environmental Protection Agency announced Thursday. The EPA announced a proposed update to the lead and copper rule strengthening President Joe Biden’s earlier goal of eradicating lead pipes. The […]
Ameren seeks to shutter Missouri coal plant early, recoup investment from ratepayers
Missouri’s largest electric provider hopes to use a state law meant to help utilities add renewable energy to close a coal plant found in violation of federal clean air laws. St. Louis-based Ameren Missouri, which serves 1.2 million customers, is planning to close its Rush Island Energy Center in Jefferson County next year under a […]
Missouri may deny meatpacker’s request to dump wastewater in river
State regulators are poised to deny a request from a southwest Missouri meatpacker to discharge treated wastewater directly into a river already impaired by E. coli. Missouri Prime Beef Packers requested permission from the state to treat wastewater from its meatpacking operation near Pleasant Hope using a proprietary microbe technology and discharge it directly into […]
Why a ‘Super El Niño’ could help drought-stricken Kansas, Missouri this winter
The phrase “El Niño” can conjure up images of horrendous weather: severe storms in the southern U.S. and droughts in Asia and Africa. But for Kansas and Missouri, El Niño, a months-long weather pattern that typically brings warm winters and extra precipitation to the central U.S., brings hope. Both states have been stuck in a […]
Southeast Kansas town is almost out of water, and signs of crisis are everywhere
CANEY, Kansas — It’s hardly a question of whether the water will run out for one town on the Kansas-Oklahoma border. It’s a matter of when. The stubborn drought that has hung over southeast Kansas for close to two years has brought Caney, a town of less than 2,000 people, within weeks of reaching the […]
Weldon Spring uranium plant contaminated Missouri lakes with radioactive waste
Steve Allen and Eric Singsaas grew up hunting and fishing in August A. Busch Memorial Conservation Area and swimming in quarries along the Missouri River in St. Charles County, never knowing they were playing near nuclear waste. “Everything we did,” Allen said in an interview, “we did together.” Allen said he and Singsaas even attended […]
Proposed Missouri silica sand mine loses appeal of its denied permit
A plan to build a silica mine in southeast Missouri suffered yet another setback on Tuesday when an appeals court ruled state regulators were within their authority to deny the project a permit. The Missouri Court of Appeals for the Eastern District sided with the Missouri Mining Commission, which denied NexGen Silica a permit in […]
Cost of Coldwater Creek radioactive waste cleanup tops $400M, federal agency finds
Cleaning up Coldwater Creek and other radioactive waste sites in St. Louis County will cost more than twice what federal officials thought six years ago, a new federal report finds. A report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office released Tuesday finds the government’s financial liability at the sites ballooned from $177 million in 2016 to […]
Grain Belt Express transmission line wins final approval in Missouri
State regulators gave final approval Thursday to the owners of the Grain Belt Express transmission line to drop off thousands of megawatts of clean power in Missouri. The decision by the Missouri Public Service Commission was the final regulatory approval Chicago-based Invenergy needed to begin the first phase of the line, to be built in […]
Missouri regulators OK Evergy changing default time-of-use pricing plan
Missouri regulators approved Evergy’s request to change customers’ default plan days before its mandatory time-of-use pricing goes into effect. The Missouri Public Service Commission last week approved the Kansas City-based electric utility’s request to change the default selection for customers who fail to select one of the company’s four time-of-use pricing plans. The commission, which […]
Biden vetoes bill that would remove lesser prairie chicken protections
U.S. President Joe Biden vetoed legislation meant to undermine federal protections for the lesser prairie chicken, a previously ubiquitous bird that is now endangered in several states. The legislation, introduced by U.S. Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kansas, and co-sponsored by fellow Kansas Republican Sen. Jerry Moran and four other senators, sought to undo a listing by […]