$180M Settlement in Reservoir Collapse

Ameren Corp. has reached an agreement worth nearly $180 million in a reservoir collapse that injured a family, the company announced Wednesday.

The proposed settlement will end a civil lawsuit filed by Attorney General Jay Nixon and months of negotiations between the St. Louis-based company and three state agencies.

The mountaintop reservoir that was part of a hydroelectric plant collapsed Dec. 14, 2005, after Ameren delayed critical repairs there and faulty instruments caused the basin to overflow. The resulting flood devastated vast tracts of the Johnson's Shut-Ins state park and injured a family of five.

The settlement must go through a 30-day public comment period before it can be approved by a judge.

Under the agreement, some $103 million goes toward rebuilding the state park. Ameren is required to spend $52 million to rebuild Johnson's Shut-Ins, while the settlement credits Ameren with $51 million for the cleanup work it has already performed.

The deal requires Ameren to pay $56.2 million in cash, including $7 million for an economic development fund in rural Reynolds County, where the reservoir is located.

Ameren also agreed to pay the Missouri Department of Natural Resources $18 million to extend the Katy Trail along 46 miles of the company's Rock Island Railroad, and more than $2.4 million through 2010 in Reynolds County taxes to keep the school district afloat until the new reservoir is completed.

Thomas Voss, Ameren's chief operating officer, said the plant that will replace the one built in the early 1960s should be up and running by late 2009.

"It will be the safest hydroelectric plant built, probably in the world," he said.

Officials who signed the agreement said it was satisfactory for the state and residents.

"We think there's a fair balance there. We didn't get everything we want, but that's part of getting a settlement that is this extensive," state Department of Natural Resources Director Doyle Childers said.

Nixon said in a news release that the settlement "satisfies my requirement for 'the three Rs,' which are the demands I have made from the beginning. Those are that Ameren's ratepayers be protected from bearing any of the costs related to the collapse, that the state of Missouri and other injured parties receive adequate recompense for their losses and that Ameren must rebuild the Taum Sauk reservoir."

Voss, who also is chief executive of Ameren's Missouri subsidiary, AmerenUE, said the company didn't need pressure to begin restoring the park or cooperate with state and local agencies. "Now, AmerenUE can begin rebuilding this important plant for the benefit of the citizens of Missouri and those who live in the Taum Sauk area," he said.