The Sierra Club says approval of a new coal ash landfill in Springfield could lead to contaminated ground water that citizens rely on for consumption.
The organization, along with concerned citizens, gathered Thursday afternoon outside the City Utilities building downtown. CU is proposing the new landfill, which would be located near the John Twitty Energy Center southwest of town. Speakers raise concerns with what they called “porous karst formations” that are “extremely susceptible to leaking.”
Dan Chiles is a former Springfield city council member and has sat on the City Utilities Board. He relates the proposed site’s stability to Swiss cheese.
“The karst formation really is full of holes, gaps, cracks, joints, and occasional sinkholes which just open up for no apparent reason. And to put something that is of such long-term duration and danger to the population on top of something that is so risky is just a very poor practice,” Chiles said.
He added that CU instead needs to be investing in building clean energy. He was among four speakers Thursday. The press conference comes ahead of tonight’s planned informational meeting of the Missouri Department of Natural Resources, which oversees the permitting process.
The public awareness session, scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Thursday, will explain the application review process and the approximate timeline for ruling on the permit application. Representatives from the state and CU will be on hand to answer questions. The meeting will take place inside the Kenneth Meyer Alumni Center on S. Jefferson St.
KSMU's Julie Greene contributed to this report.