Taum Sauk plant's benefits listed

To the editor:

One summer while I was still in college I worked at the pumped-storage hydroelectric plant at Taum Sauk. AmerenUE is a good company. Although the plant predates the national grid, it provided emergency peak-load capacity that has saved Ameren customers millions of dollars on their electric bills over the years. The company has also protected thousands of acres of Ozark forest, provides a free on-site natural history museum and offers free recreation to campers and fishermen at the lower reservoir. Without the taxes from the plant the Lesterville School District would be impoverished and far fewer county roads would have been paved. The generating capacity from the plant is environmentally clean, unlike the numerous lead smelters that once dotted the region. More importantly, no one died in the accident, which cannot be said for the numerous accidents in the mining industry over the last 45 years.

MICHAEL DEVANEY, Cape Girardeau