ST. CHARLES, Mo. – The City of St. Charles has shut down five of its seven wells due to contamination. It is now reduced to two wells that are open.
The Public Works Department closed the well in Elm Point Wellfield, its largest well.
“These are similar contaminants that we’ve had in our other wells, and we feel like this is just further evidence that contamination coming from Ameren substation is not contained within the substation and is continuing to migrate and spread,” said Nick Galla, director of the St. Charles Public Works Department.
Galla said that the drinking water is still safe to drink because the well was shut down as soon as contaminants were found.
Craig Giesmann, Director of Environmental Services at Ameren Missouri, released the following statement:
“The City of St. Charles and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency have emphasized that the drinking water in St. Charles is safe. Ameren Missouri is committed to the safety of the St. Charles community and remains strongly supportive of additional EPA-directed testing in the Elm Point Wellfield. As the EPA referenced multiple times in a public meeting on November 17, the source of the groundwater contamination is unknown. The contamination source must first be determined before pursuing a remedy, and the good news is that EPA says it intends to have that source testing done soon. As EPA stated at its public meeting, Ameren Missouri has voluntarily worked for over a decade to clean up contamination from the Huster substation site, and years of monitoring data show that clean-up work has been successful.
