KMOV.com
(KMOV) — Hundreds of dead fish surfaced near a controversial landfill raised red flags on Tuesday. Residents want to know what caused the death of some many fish in a lake near the West Lake Landfill where radioactive waste is buried. The lake sits inside the industrial park in Earth City where a resident noticed the belly-up fish and called News 4.
‘We think the problem is far more significant than the EPA has been saying,” said Ed Smith. Smith is with the Missouri Coalition for the environment and is both a critic and skeptic of the landfill. He’s especially concerned over the part of the site where radioactive waste is stored.
“Anything is possible, all we can say for certain is that a fish kill like this isn’t necessarily linked to water contamination it could possibly be oxygen depletion,” said Dan Zerlenga with the Missouri Department of Conservation. It is possible ice and snow cover could have smothered the fish, again no one is certain.
“What I really hope we don’t have here is a canary in a coal mine type of situation. Meaning we don’t want a correlation but it should be thoroughly investigated,” said Smith.
