Middle Fork and Coal Ash Meetings

 There are a couple opportunities for public input on the proposed bank armoring project by Dynergy to deal with the toxic coal ash site near the Middle Fork River. The first meeting is this Monday night (tomorrow as of this posting) at the Champaign Public Library. From the News-Gazette yesterday:

Environmental groups set meetings on Middle Fork coal-ash campaign
Advocates of protecting the Middle Fork River from possible coal-ash contamination are encouraging the public to attend one of two upcoming meetings that will update citizens on the campaign and offer opportunities to get involved.

Texas-based Vistra Energy Corp., which recently merged with Dynegy, has filed an application with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to put more rocks along the river bank near coal-ash pits that were once part of the closed Dynegy power station north of Oakwood.

Recent decisions by the Corps of Engineers and the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency have opened the door for more public input into the decision-making process on whether to allow Dynegy to stabilize the bank in the manner it has proposed and let it permanently leave the coal ash in the pits.

Lan and Pam Richart, co-directors of Eco-Justice Collaborative, and Andrew Rehn, water resources engineer with the Prairie Rivers Network, will lead both public meetings, providing updates on the government agencies' review of Vistra's plans and ways to provide comments and learn where each Illinois gubernatorial candidate stands on the issue.

The first meeting is set for 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Monday at the Champaign Public Library, 200 W. Green St.; the second is set for 6 to 7:30 p.m. Oct. 11 at the Danville Public Library, 319 N. Vermilion St.

More at the full article here. More information from the Eco-Justice Collaborative here. More information from the Prairie Rivers Network on the proposed bank armoring here. Their description of the problem explains their demand for Dynergy to seek alternative and hopefully permanent safeguards to the river:

The real issue here is the location of the coal ash – not the river. As long as the coal ash is in the floodplain next to the meandering river, there will be need for repeated bank armoring. Indeed, this project includes removal of the previous bank armoring efforts from the 1980s which used gabions. That set of bank armoring was daunting in size, yet despite the magnitude of the 1980s armoring, the river was able to negate its influence with time.

Bank armoring is a temporary practice. One day, this project will also need to be removed and replaced.

More at their article here.