The Lake Today

Private property owners, local business owners and community leaders gathered at two public forums, last week, to ask for clarification of a number of issues surrounding the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s (FERC) input into Ameren Missouri’s Shoreline Management Plan (SMP) for Lake of the Ozarks.

Although the attendees appeared apprehensive about how the SMP will affect their property, a majority appeared to be angrier about what they perceive as federal government interference in private property rights than with how the utility company is managing the Lake’s shoreline.

The public forums were held at two separate locations at the Lake to give property owners a chance to ask Ameren officials direct questions about how enforcement of the SMP will affect their individual properties. Ameren announced it would hold the public forums after several months of controversy over an amendment FERC added to Ameren’s original SMP submitted to that agency in 2008 as part of the utility company’s relicensing process.

Last summer, FERC approved the SMP with the addition of several orders the federal agency had added to the original document. In amending the document, FERC had added a provision that gave Ameren until May of 2012 to map the entire Lakeshore and come up with a plan for removing any privately owned structures that were “encroaching onto the project boundary.”

The project boundary is defined as all portions of the shoreline that were purchased by Union Electric in the late 1920s as well as those portions of shoreline where Union Electric obtained easements onto private property. According to Jeff Green, Ameren’s shoreline manager, the original project boundary line is measured at 665 feet above sea in some areas and as high as 678 feet above sea level in others. Over the years as development took place around the shoreline those lines became blurred and in some areas private property owners built permanent structures that encroached onto the project boundary.

Today, Ameren estimates that there may be as many 1,000 or more private homes that are partially or completely extending onto sections of the shoreline under its control. FERC’s order that these “nonconforming structures that encroach onto the project boundary” must be removed prompted Ameren to ask for a rehearing on the SMP and to devise a plan for allowing the structures to remain in place.

Ameren’s plan is simply that the project boundary be redrawn at 662-feet above sea level which will eliminate most of the private structures from the project boundary and that FERC allow the utility company to workout individual solutions with the few property owners whose homes would still be considered “encroachments.”

Many of the attendees at last week’s forums said they were there simply to view the shoreline maps prepared by Ameren and determine if indeed their homes were one of the “encroaching structures.”

A heartfelt “bless your heart” was the comment from Nancy Zeimet of Sunrise Beach after being told by an Ameren official that her home set well back of utility company’s proposed 662 project boundary line.

Other attendees were aware that their private homes were well above the project boundary, but were concerned that their property could be affected in other ways if the project boundary is redrawn.

Julia Crabtree, whose family has owned the land in what is now Little Buffalo Cove in Morgan County since well before the lake was built, said she does not have a “problem” with how Ameren is managing the shoreline. But is “very concerned that the long arm of the federal government not be allowed to reach into private property rights” or interfere in the relationship between Ameren and shoreline residents.

“As I see it, the problem here is with FERC not with Ameren,” Crabtree said. “The only thing I am concerned about is if Ameren is allowed to lower the project boundary to 662 will it stay there or be changed again in 20 years when they (Ameren) have to apply for another permit.”

Green said the public can still comment on Ameren’s plan to remove most of the private property from the project boundary by lowering it to 662 feet above sea level and can satisfy themselves as to exactly their homes are in conjunction with the redrawn boundary line by viewing the shoreline maps available at AmerenMissouri.com/lake.

Green said comments from the public would be accepted on the website until Jan. 15. Once the public comment period is complete Ameren will submit its plan to redraw the project boundary line to FERC for approval.

“We’ve set a March 30 deadline for submitting the new SMP to FERC,” Green said. “But we hope to have to them before that.”