A U.S. District Court Judge has affirmed AmerenUE’s authority to regulate shoreline development activities, including large commercial boat docks—those with more than 10 slips—at Missouri’s Lake of the Ozarks. In a Dec. 18, 2008 decision, Judge Nanette K. Laughrey also ruled that an easement which grants landowners certain rights does not preclude UE from enforcing its shoreline management regulations and requirements.
UE regulates docks, seawalls and other structures at the lake under the terms of its federal license for the operation of the Osage Hydroelectric Project, which includes Bagnell Dam, the Osage Power Plant at the dam, and the lake itself.
The decision came in a case UE had filed against the owners of Shady Gators, who had installed or moved several large docks without obtaining permits from UE. In its decision, the court ordered the defendants to comply with UE’s permit program in placing any boat docks or other structures on project property, and to remove any un-permitted boat docks from project property and not return them without first obtaining a permit.
A subsidiary of St. Louis-based Ameren Corporation, UE serves 1.2 million electric and natural gas customers in a 24,000-square-mile area covering parts of north, central and eastern Missouri.
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CONTACT: Mike Cleary, 573.681.7137, of AmerenUE