DNR chief threatens to take Nixon to court over Taum Sauk case

ST. LOUIS -- Missouri Department of Natural Resources director Doyle Childers threatened Friday to take Attorney General Jay Nixon to court if Nixon does not recuse himself from the Taum Sauk reservoir case.

Nixon is suing St. Louis-based Ameren Corp. over the reservoir collapse and is considering whether to file criminal charges.

In a letter to Nixon, Childers said the attorney general should step off the case in light of comments an Ameren vice president made to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch Wednesday. Vice president Richard Mark said Nixon's campaign solicited political donations from the company after Nixon launched his criminal probe.

"If you will not remove yourself from this matter, DNR will move in circuit court for your removal from the civil and criminal aspects of this case," Childers said in the letter.

Nixon spokesman Scott Holste said Nixon will stay on the case.

"No amount of politically motivated letters from the Blunt administration will stop the Attorney General from doing his job and carrying out his responsibilities to protect Missouri families," Holste wrote in an e-mail to The Associated Press.

At issue is $20,000 in donations that Ameren gave to four Democratic campaign committees in early 2006. The committees gave virtually all the money to Nixon's campaign.

Nixon later returned the money.

The Missouri Ethics Commission investigated the donations and ruled in September that neither Nixon nor Ameren committed any wrongdoing.

The mountaintop reservoir collapsed in late 2005, spilling more than 1 billion gallons of water over the Johnson's Shut-Ins State Park, devastating the area and seriously injuring a family of five.