Chamois power plant facing closure

Wednesday, January 30, 2013

By the end of the year, Chamois will likely lose its major employer, the Chamois Power Plant, because of tougher EPA regulations and the increasing delivery cost of coal.

The community will gather at 6:30 p.m. Thursday to discuss the outlook for the power plant, as well as the potential impact on the town of 396 people. As of Wednesday night, officials were uncertain if the meeting would be held in the Chamois Community Center or at the high school.

The coal-fired power plant, which is owned by Central Electric Power Cooperative, will likely be scheduled for closure due to several factors, including the cost of updating the plant to abide by proposed EPA regulations and an imminent increase in the delivered cost of coal.

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GrumpyGus 3 months, 3 weeks ago

Elections have consequences ladies and gentlemen. Forward!!! (to the 19th century, apparently).

Littleinvestor 3 months, 3 weeks ago

The increase in the price of coal apparently had something to do with this, not just coming regulations. BUT, it looks like smaller plants like Chamois could be grandfathered without hurting the environment too much.

asb 3 months, 3 weeks ago

Gus is right, elections have consequences. We should just unhook all that damned pollution equipment from our power plants, then by gum we'd have the 19th century back eh? We need to have 19th century wages for the coal miners too. And get rid of the safety and environmental controls on coal, gas and oil production and use. Who needs mountains? We need to put the carbon guys in charge of the government, then we'd . . . oh wait, let's not go there right now. We need to be more like China, just look at how well they're doing. Isn't it fun; a communist country like China is strangling in their own unregulated poo while America strangles business instead of its people. Sorry, but the Chamois plant was designed and built at a time and scale that doomed it to a short life. If it were big enough, it could be cleaned up. I would be happy to see smaller plants like Chamois given a longer time to run under the regs, but ultimately, it's too small and too old a design for use. Hey, if it were the only one, no problem. But there are thousands of these litle smokers all over the planet, and they're killing us. Those jobs are the real casualties, and getting another industry, or a newer modular nuke plant in Chamois, would be something to explore.

JCLifer 3 months, 3 weeks ago

Agree 100%. Close them down. Bring the customers under the Ameren umbrella. Charge 'em and use the money to build another nuke plant. Everyone benefits.

RobHunterJohnson 3 months, 3 weeks ago

I guess on all those Coop peak alerts we can look to big brother Ameren! It is ashame they cannot seem to work with these small utilities, but it has been coming for a long time? It sound like the Railroad has a role in this as well, why put the tracks in if you are going to have to scrub the plant as well? I always figured Ameren would put a larger coal fired in the neighborhood of Chamois, because the transmission lines from Callaway cross the Missouri River right there, and there is abundunt coal coming from Union Pacific! Rob

WTF 3 months, 3 weeks ago

When business decisions benefit corporations everyone jumps on board saying Hurray!!! but when a corporation gets ready to shudder the windows because of the cost of keeping something open is too high, It's booo.

It's all in the cost of doing business. It's the American way. Survival of the fittest. The doom on this facility is due to the reduction of cost in natural gas that fire the Electrical facilities in southern Missouri and northern Oklahoma where CEPC gets its power from. The amount of electricity generated from the Chamois facility is minimal compared to what they are getting somewhere else.

Why would CEPC put a nuke plant in a flood zone? How many times has that facility flooded?

connor 3 months, 3 weeks ago

So Instead of a little coal smoke that admittedly causes some pollution but is eventually broken down naturally, let's create radioactive fuel rods that we and our descendants will have to store safely for how many thousands of years?

That is some ecologically smart thinking for the long term right there.

Not to mention the funding for a new plant or a measly 500 or so across the country is just sitting there waiting to be spent because wealth is magically created out of computer chips these days.

Meanwhile the employees from this plant can be re-trained and then wait a few years on unemployment while we build a new plant and pay for them to relocate.

Nice.

WTF 3 months, 3 weeks ago

It's all in the cost of doing business. It's the American way. Survival of the fittest.

The doom on this facility is due to the reduction of cost in natural gas that fire the Electrical facilities in southern Missouri and northern Oklahoma where CEPC gets its power from. The amount of electricity generated from the Chamois facility is minimal compared to what they are getting somewhere else.

Why would CEPC put a nuke plant in a flood zone? How many times has that facility flooded?

connor 3 months, 3 weeks ago

Did you even bother to read the comments above mine or did you just jump on the link to my comment hoping to be able to disagree with me?

At any rate at least we agree about the nuke plant idea but had you read the other comments you would know that.

WTF 3 months, 3 weeks ago

. Sorry I can't post this where it needed to be I clicked on the wrong reply. I put it under the right place.

connor 3 months, 3 weeks ago

Fair enough.

RobHunterJohnson 3 months, 3 weeks ago

Better go study up on global warming, coal plants are NASTY, just park your car on the lot for a day with right direction of wind, thats the heavy stuff on the hood, and no telling where the rest of it goes! If they wish to burn coal then do it right, why not lead the world rather than act like China! Conner (mr history guy) tell us about BLACK SNOW in the big city, or just take a look at photos in Glacier National Park 100 years ago to present? If the pace continues at this rate, there will be no Glaciers in Glacier National Park in 30 years! Rob

connor 3 months, 3 weeks ago

The Global warming threat that was just recently downgraded to the "Sultry Sunday Afternoon"?

Yes I have studied History and received my degrees in it and I can tell you one thing with much more certainty than any global warming theory. No society has ever lasted even 1000 years intact with complete infrastructure and the ability to manage in a safe manner spent radioactive fuel rods.

Yet even placing that aside we cannot afford to build new power infrastructure anyway. The cost of new infrastructure would run more than the cost of retrofitting the plants or just cleaning up the mess and you won't find any private business to build it on their own anyway.

JCLifer 3 months, 3 weeks ago

I read somewhere that the Ameren Labadie plant was responsible for 5% of the acid rain in the Northeast/Canada- that 5% of the emmissions come from that one plant. Three trains worth of coal burned there in a day! That is a lot of pollution.

700' chimneys too!

JCLifer 3 months, 3 weeks ago

Table 1: Death and disease attributable to fine particle pollution from the Labadie Power StationType of Impact Annual Incidence Valuation Deaths 110 $820,000,000 Heart attacks 180 $19,000,000 Asthma attacks 1,900 $100,000 Hospital admissions 82 $1,900,000 Chronic bronchitis 69 $31,000,000 Asthma ER visits 120 $45,000

sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Labadie_Power_Station

WTF 3 months, 3 weeks ago

Look what is happening to China.

abcnews.go.com/International/chinas-filthy-air-prompts-mask-rush-cans-fresh/story?id=18352787

This is why we have regulations. Environmental regulations so we can breath. There are no regulations in China.

connor 3 months, 3 weeks ago

W-T-F provides some relevant information on this topic.

The recent glut in Natural Gas available from Fracking and subsequent price drop would render a coal plant such as this one too expensive to operate. It makes sense.

RobHunterJohnson 3 months, 3 weeks ago

Its ashame you cannot get the Tour at the Nuke plant, or for that matter Labidie, but once you see it from the inside there is no comparison, because coal is a filthy process! When they fire one of those Natural gas peaking units up, the cost skyrockets. Your best bet is clean coal, and nuclear. Its not that big of deal to clean these coal burners up, the only reason its front, and center is George Bush giving the coal burners reprieve after he got into office in 2000? Thomas Hill has cleaned all 3 of thier plants, as well as Portage Desioux (Ameren) , Praire State was built right (Illinois). Labidie is 2nd worst polluter in the US, 22nd on the list from another source, Hawthorn has cleaned up (KCPL), Why don't we clean them all up? Money/Profits/Shareholders and people like you who think that GLOBAL WARMING IS A JOKE! I remeber the North pole as frozen ice, each summer it getting closer to making a permanent shipping route from Europe to Asia. Everything works together except for the radical right! Rob

connor 3 months, 3 weeks ago

Hah I don't think Global warming is a joke. I think it is a tool used by elements of the Unionized Liberal/Feminist left to further embezzle money from the taxpayers through carbon credits and a way to regulate individual homes.

By all means I am 100% behind cleaning up coal plants that will be around a while. They are going to die out soon anyway as we have used up most of the affordable coal as it is. There are advantages to letting things go away on their own through natural selection.

And as I said the safety features for nuclear waste built by a human being and relying on human infrastructure and government are nothing more than outright lies. Nothing man has ever built lasts as long as nuclear waste. Once the technology for nuclear power is complete which includes a permanent solution for dealing with the waste I will be all for it.

Oh and if you check back you will notice the Sea Ice has disappeared off and on since time began. Not all that long ago it had cleared to the point that England sent a ship to navigate the north passage. Maybe you have heard of it? The Ice came back with a vengeance and locked that ship into the ice for years.

We owe our entire civilization to receding global ice and climbing temps as a matter of fact.

connor 3 months, 3 weeks ago

Let's see.

As soon as ice melt and refreeze increases beyond historical points that have been noted or recorded I will worry about man made or natural anomaly. Until that time I will choose to follow the scientist who theorize it is natural in origin.

The make up and proposed carbon credit/redistribution scheme the left wishes to impose makes it pretty obvious what they are after.

As far as safe nuclear waste goes even your Boy Obama said "We can do a better job" and has effectively closed Yucca mountain which means all that waste is being stored where?

I am glad you are willing to take that risk on behalf of our descendants. I have come to expect no less from you. I am not willing to however.

Carbon actually has it's uses and is beneficial to some life and nature. Clean it up by phasing it out not by wealth redistribution designed to make others rich...wait richer.

RobHunterJohnson 3 months, 3 weeks ago

Roald admundson navigated it finally in a fortified ship in 1903? Wikipedi Until 2009, the artic pack ICE prevented regular marine shipping throughout most of the year, but CLIMATE CHANGE has reduced ICE PACK, and the artic shrinkage made the waterway more navigable" That is called global warming! ROB

connor 3 months, 3 weeks ago

So you now see that the ice packs were indeed once open only about 100 years ago. Grats.

online_editor 3 months, 3 weeks ago

I removed a few comments that were going a bit off topic into some personal sniping. But please feel free to re-post any points within that which you feel were relevant parts of the discussion. Thanks. --Rick Brown, online editor, News Tribune

spelchek 3 months, 3 weeks ago

Careful Mr. Brown, pointing words like "sniping" at commentors might scare some folks on here. I kid (kind of) of course.

online_editor 3 months, 3 weeks ago

Ha, good one. I looked at possible synonyms but none fill the bill as concisely (given the applicable definition).

connor 3 months, 3 weeks ago

Oh I assure you the Conservative posters wouldn't be scared or complain.

RobHunterJohnson 3 months, 3 weeks ago

With an Ice breaker? Rob

connor 3 months, 3 weeks ago

Gjoa was not an Icebreaker it was a herring fishing boat and could not have made the passage if the Northwest passage had not completely cleared.

connor 3 months, 3 weeks ago

Perhaps there is something here you don't understand Rob. The Northwest passage was open off and on for years. The Inuits told the various explorers over the years that it would open up and at various times the land explorers could actually see the passage had opened.

By the Mid 1800's there was only about 310 miles left of the passage to explore and Franklin's expedition set out to do it. This expedition met with tragedy when the passage hit an exceptionally bad Winter and the ships got ice locked for years. The passage was then observed to be open after that once again but it wasn't until 1906 that another ship tried to find the navigable passage, which was the real problem anyway not the ice itself.

Then the passage closed up for over a century. I am willing to bet that the ice melt opening up the passage in the 17 and 1800's was NOT due to your global warming lefty religious belief.

RobHunterJohnson 3 months, 3 weeks ago

1903 to 1906 to reach Nome, Alaska? " Because the water along the route was as shallow as 3' (0.91m), A Larger ship could not have made the voyage."? The Maud 1918 to 1920 did not seem to work either (different objective), ""the ice became so thick that the ship was unable to break free, even though the ship was designed specifically for such a journey" then he discovererd Aeroplanes, and his Disappearance and Death. In other words the Ice ate this guys lunch Conner You ought to be smart enough to see that thing have changed in a short time period? Nuclear works, but everything needs to be regulated something you seem to have trouble with. How about DRY CASK STORAGE of Nuclear Waste, and we just keep it right here in good ol Callaway County. Global warming is real, and the USA should be a leader, not a follower in solutions! Rob

RobHunterJohnson 3 months, 3 weeks ago

Conner, the Inuitt were not in power boats, they were using CANOES! Rob Hey Rick you dreams these captcha words up urine ooHsTs

connor 3 months, 3 weeks ago

OK "No Reply Rob" since you seem to be one who cannot hit a reply button I will continue in this manner.

The ice flow did open up. No one can explain it any simpler than that. Then it stopped. Nothing is going to make you admit to it. The problem was not the ice blocking the route 100% of the time it was finding the channel in the time it was open and it was not due to global warming.

Even your boy Obama admits we are not doing a good job storing the waste but you seem to have no issue dumping the problem off on the children as long as it makes your retirement, or in this case continued unemployment easier and cheaper.

typical union me attitude.

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