I’ve been meaning to write about this for a little while, but tempus fugit and all that. First up, the clean up efforts of particulates clouding the water in the Black river and lower resevoir at Taum Sauk have begun. The water in the Black river, once noted for its clarity, has been a murky muck since the disasterous breach of the upper reservoir. From the picture the Post Dispatch ran, you could see that the water had scoured its path right down to the pink granite bedrock underneath, washing away everything – trees and soil included.
Secondly, the investigation heated up when it was discovered that Ameren UE had earlier problems, including a prior overflow, with the upper reservoir. So now Missouri officials (including Gov. Matt Blunt) are talking about criminal charges, and a local judge has appointed the state Attorney General, Jay Nixon, as special prosecutor.
While I think the company should pay for the clean up, I would much prefer, as both a Ameren UE ratepayer and a citizen of Missouri, to see fines and criminal charges targeted at the specific people whose actions, or failures to act, led to this disaster, than a large blanket fine imposed on Ameren UE. My thinking as a ratepayer is obvious – why should I pay the fine for another person’s failure, because that’s exactly what will happen. And as a citizen, I want to see (1) the guilty punished and (2) similar screwups detered. I think you are more likely to have a deterent effect if people realize that they will personally pay for, not mistakes per se, but clear failures of judgement that hurt other people. I realize that a corporation is a wonderful financial and civil legal abstraction, I’m just not sure it’s all that good as a criminal one. The blame is shifted onto an artificial abstraction, and not on the flesh and blood it belongs on.
