Mo. regulators reopen reservoir probe

Missouri regulators will reopen their investigation into a reservoir collapse after learning that an electric utility worker or workers removed evidence of an improperly set warning system.

Missouri Public Service Commission Chairman Jeff Davis said Tuesday that he made the decision after learning that safety gauges had been removed immediately after the reservoir collapsed Dec. 14, 2005.

"That certainly looks like they were doing something wrong and they were attempting to conceal it," Davis said. "When you know that the dam has collapsed, and there is going to be an investigation, why at that point would you touch anything?"

The collapse spilled more than 1 billion gallons of water across a state park. A park superintendent and his family were hurt.

The Associated Press reported Monday on a Missouri State Highway Patrol report that found that Ameren Corp. had adjusted the crucial gauges to keep the Taum Sauk facility running at full capacity. The 18-month investigation found that unknown Ameren employee or employees removed them after the collapse, before state inspectors arrived at the scene.

The probes set along the top of the mountaintop reservoir were designed to shut the plant down and prevent an overflow if water ever reached them. A report written for the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission said the probes had been raised, and were likely so high that water did not touch them when the reservoir overflowed.

The commission had conducted an earlier review of the disaster but had not found evidence to warrant penalties, Davis said. But he said commission staff requested a copy of the patrol's report, which details how the gauges were adjusted and removed.

Davis said commission staffers will review the 2,000-page report. If the commission finds that Ameren operated the Taum Sauk plant in an unsafe manner, the company could face civil penalties, he said.

Ameren spokeswoman Susan Gallagher said the company has paid more than $40 million to repair damage from the reservoir collapse.

"We fully cooperated with the state and federal investigations and provided them with all the information we had," Gallagher said.

Gallagher has declined to say who moved the alarm probes before the collapse and who removed them the day of the collapse. Ameren managers acknowledged to investigators that someone moved the probes, and that only a handful of people knew how to adjust them.

Ameren Vice President Mark Birk said an Ameren engineer removed the probes the day of the collapse, although Ameren did not know who did it, according to the report.

Attorney General Jay Nixon said last month that the would not file criminal charges over the collapse because the highway patrol's report did not identify any suspects in the case.