Rush Island Energy Center has 11 groundwater monitoring wells, 11 of which have been polluted above federal advisory levels based on samples collected between January 19, 2016 and November 11, 2019. Groundwater at this site contains unsafe levels of molybdenum, arsenic, boron, lithium, antimony and lead.
Site descriptionAmeren Energy Company’s Rush Island Generating Station is in Festus, Missouri along the banks of the Mississippi River in Jefferson County. Rush Island began operations in 1976, at one time operating two coal-fired units that generated a combined 1,178-MW of electricity. In 2021 the company announced it would close the plant by 2024. This was fifteen years earlier than planned, following a lawsuit resolution that would have forced them to install pollution equipment to continue operation. In 2008, Rush Island was mandated by a court settlement with the EPA to clean up 140,000 tons of coal ash waste they illegally dumped in an offsite landfill. Ameren Energy Company, three unnamed companies and Rotary Drilling Company were all found guilty of illegally disposing coal ash that poisoned and killed off local wetlands. Rush Island currently operates a singular surface impoundment that no longer accepts CCR material and is scheduled to be capped in 2020. Rush Island’s Surface Impoundment is regulated under the CCR rule.
You can find the industry-reported data here. For more information about the Rush Island Energy Center, see EIP's 2019 National Coal Ash Report.