ST CHARLES, Mo. — Update: Thursday afternoon, the EPA released the results of its testing at Elm Point Wellfield in St. Charles, identifying the Ameren Huster Road Substation as a source of vinyl chloride and cis-1,2-dichloroethene contamination. The EPA said it will require Ameren to address the contamination.
The original story is below:
The City of St. Charles is asking a federal court to intervene in its water contamination problems.
The city wants the EPA to require Ameren to pay up to millions of dollars to help the city clean up groundwater contamination at its Elm Point Wellfield.
5 On Your Side obtained court documents filed last week in U.S. District Court in St. Louis.
In the documents, St. Charles said a proposed cleanup agreement between the EPA and Ameren Missouri is unfair and ignores substantial new data.
The background
Elm Point Well Field is the city’s primary source of drinking water. It has now shut down five of its seven drinking water wells due to traces of 1, 2-dichloroethylene and vinyl chloride found in the Elm Point Wellfield. To combat this drinking water shortage, the city has been purchasing millions of gallons of water daily from the City of St. Louis.
St. Charles has been dealing with this contamination for decades. It blames Ameren Missouri for the present contamination at Elm Point Wellfield because there was contamination linked to a nearby Ameren substation years ago.
However, both Ameren and the EPA agreed further testing was needed to determine the source of contamination. Ameren stands by the EPA test process and has told 5 On Your Side multiple times it is committed to working with both the EPA and DNR (Department of Natural Resources) to determine the source.
The testing
The EPA began testing the wellfield in January.
To investigate, the EPA used a testing method called direct push technology. Project Manager Clint Sperry told 5 On Your Side this pushes a Geoprobe, a manufactured drilling machine, into the ground to take samples of groundwater at several different increments underground.
“EPA has always used – for investigative purposes – this type of technology," Sperry said.
The City of St Charles said it repeatedly raised concerns about the EPA performing limited, one-time groundwater sampling and regretted the agency's decision to not fully evaluate the well field.
“We feel that the testing is very superficial," he said.
The city launched an independent investigation of its own in late January 2023. The mayor said the city installed 26 permanent monitoring wells at 13 locations to repeatedly sample groundwater.
Shortly after, State Rep. Phil Christofanelli (R-St. Peters) and State Sen. Bill Eigel (R-Weldon Springs) announced the filing of legislation that would require the Missouri Department of Natural Resources to share its evidence of contamination with Attorney General Andrew Bailey so he may bring a civil action against "any entity" found responsible for tainting the public water system.
The push for answers
St. Charles residents just want to know if their drinking water is safe.
Kara Elms with St. Charles Clean Water Advocates said the back-and-forth cycle of the last few months has sometimes left her and other residents with more questions than answers.
“I feel like it’s a lot of finger-pointing, and ‘Well we don’t know who to blame,'” said St. Charles resident Diane Seider.
The EPA has scheduled a community meeting to discuss groundwater contamination in St. Charles.
The meeting at the St. Charles Borromeo Catholic Parish on Thursday, Feb. 23. The session will begin at 6 p.m. with a formal presentation held at 7 p.m. Following the presentation, EPA staff will facilitate a question-and-answer session until 8:30 p.m.