AmerenUE, St. Louis, will pay a $10-million civil penalty, fund $5 million in improvements and adopt a comprehensive safety program for the utility's hydroelectric facilities in a settlement with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. The settlement is for the breach of the Taum Sauk hydroelectric project's upper reservoir in Reynolds County, Mo. Water washed over its 100-ft-high, rock-filled, concrete-lined dam Dec. 14, 2005, dumping about 1.3 billion gallons from the 1.5-billion-gallon reservoir. The improvement funds will be spent on the affected area, not on rebuilding the reservoir, says an AmerenUE spokesman. The utility has not yet decided if it will rebuild the dam and reservoir.