The Examiner
by Byron DeLear
In a shocking revelation concerning the ongoing saga of the radioactive West Lake Landfill, yesterday, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released a report it had suppressed for more than three years. In it, the National Remedy Review Board (NRRB), a peer-review group that oversees Superfund site clean-up plans, criticized the agency’s proposed 2008 decision to place a cap on top of the site and states in no uncertain terms that based on the data there is “accessible, highly toxic principal threat waste at this site.”
The report exposes other issues with the EPA’s methodologies including a lack of proper and adequate testing, not accounting for exponentially increasing levels of radioactivity or “ingrowth,” and in general, any consideration for long term health impacts. In a fit of macabre irony, for years, the community has been calling attention to many of the same concerns cited in the report and has been pleading with state and federal officials to intervene.
“What else are they hiding? What we are calling for now is a full-blown congressional investigation into the EPA’s Region 7 handling of the West Lake Landfill. This site should be taken from EPA and placed with the Army Corps of Engineers immediately”—Dawn Chapman, Just Moms STL
“What really comes through in this report – which they’ve kept from us for more than three years – is its one-sidedness,” remarked Dawn Chapman of Just Moms STL. “Time and time again the EPA is called out for offering a view which supports basically doing the least amount possible to protect this community. It’s no wonder the EPA wanted to quash this report — and what else are they hiding from us? What we are calling for now is a full-blown congressional investigation into the EPA’s Region 7 handling of the West Lake Landfill. This site should be taken from EPA and placed with the Army Corps of Engineers immediately.”
“The circumstances surrounding the suppression of this report, which has been requested for years, needs to be investigated,” stated nuclear policy expert Bob Alvarez.
Alvarez along with several other internationally recognized experts, including Dr. Helen Caldicott and Lois Gibbs, have increased their focus on the West Lake Landfill, which is currently under threat of a years-long subsurface fire which has been moving closer to the known location of the radwaste. Sadly, because of the lack of adequate testing, the community really doesn’t know where the radioactive material is or has gone over the last 43 years.
“The circumstances surrounding the suppression of this report, which has been requested for years, needs to be investigated,” stated nuclear policy expert Bob Alvarez.
Independent investigations mounted by Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster’s office has decidedly shown that the material has migrated offsite — and due to the lack of any comprehensive testing by the EPA, it would certainly be plausible that the radwaste has migrated to areas which are now on fire, and yet the EPA continues its dithering and refuses to conduct a grid-like analysis of the site.
The West Lake Landfill is an orphaned legacy of the Manhattan Project and early U.S. nuclear weapons program. It contains more than 43,000 tons of radiological contaminated material that was illegally dumped there by the Cotter Corporation in 1973. Heightened levels of cancer and sickness have been documented in the area which is part of a much larger contamination problem in north St. Louis County associated Mallinckrodt’s role in purifying industrial scale amounts of uranium for the U.S. nuclear weapons project.
The history of St. Louis’s role during the Manhattan Project can be read here; and the uncovering of an existing law which unequivocally orders the “recall” of mishandled nuclear byproduct material — which applies to West Lake — can be read here.
The NRRB report released yesterday cites numerous discrepancies in the EPA’s calculus including conclusions concerning measurements from wells at the site, the radiological impact on groundwater contamination, and calculations concerning the total amount of radiologically impacted material (estimates ranging from 150,000—500,000 cubic yards). It also points the EPA toward reexamining its decision to not remove and excavate the highly radiotoxic material.
“It’s just so ridiculous, why do they make it so hard for the people?” commented Robbin Dailey, also with Just Moms STL. “They’re not the ‘Environmental Protection Agency’ anymore, they’re the ‘Protect Their Own A** Agency.”
“Since the beginning, I and others have called on the EPA to seriously consider the option of removing the waste instead of focusing only on containment,” said Missouri State Representative Bill Otto in a statement today. “With this disclosure, public pressure is mounting for the EPA to consider the advice of its own experts and move forward on a plan to clean-up West Lake without further delay.”
“It’s just so ridiculous, why do they make it so hard for the people?” commented Robbin Dailey, also with Just Moms STL. “They’re not the ‘Environmental Protection Agency’ anymore, they’re the ‘Protect Their Own A** Agency.”
To read the National Remedy Review Board report, click here.
To subscribe to this author’s updates concerning the West Lake Landfill story, click here.
