The cost of improvements and of getting coal added to a soft market for the sale of electricity could spell the end for the Central Electric Co-Op power plant in Chamois.
At a meeting Thursday night , plant officials laid out their expenses to a crowd of about 300 people.
It would cost about $14 million dollars to comply with EPA regulations on air quality. Plus, the price for the delivery of the coal this year is going up 94 percent,. They would also have to spend an additional $3 million to build a new railroad siding to bring that coal to the plant.
Donald Shaw, the Central Electric Co-op CEO, said, "If the numbers that we currently have do not change, my opinion would be that the plant will probably be close. But I don't get to make that decision alone. There are other people who have a part to play in that."
Ralph Cramer has worked at the plant for 36 years. He said the thought that the plant might close has been in the back of people's minds for some time.
"I think that its been kinda in the wind, you know, nobody really wanted to face reality, they just wanted to say "It's not gonna happen", but it has happened, or it's happening," Cramer said. "From there, I... I just speak for the community, it's a bad situation."
Central Electric is headquartered in Jefferson City.
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