[CPEO-MEF] RADIATION, FORMER SITES: West Lake Landfill, St. Louis suburbs, Missouri

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

Neighbors Fume at Radioactive Dump
Legacy of Atomic-Era Weapons Work in St. Louis Suburb Stirs Worries  
About Health, Environment


By JOHN R. EMSHWILLER
Wall Street Journal
December 29, 2013

BRIDGETON, Mo. - A dispute is smoldering here, in one sense quite  
literally, over what to do with thousands of tons of radioactive  
waste in a landfill in this suburban St. Louis town.

Some residents argue the waste, created decades ago by the U.S.  
nuclear-weapons program and other federal work, poses a health and  
environmental threat and should be removed. The landfill's owner  
disputes that and says the best course is to leave the waste in place  
with some beefed-up protections. The Environmental Protection Agency  
has favored the second option but is reconsidering in reaction to  
community opposition.

The dispute is complicated by other factors. What officials from the  
EPA and the landfill's owner call a "subsurface smoldering event" -  
locals call it an underground fire - has sprung up in a nearby  
nonnuclear landfill area. It isn't clear what would happen if the  
smoldering reaches the radioactive materials. Efforts are under way  
to prevent that.

Digging up the radioactive waste, meanwhile, could cause flight- 
safety headaches at the nearby Lambert-St. Louis International  
Airport. Officials of the airport say excavating the landfill could  
attract birds that might pose a risk to planes. A 2010 letter from  
the airport authority called the landfill, known as West Lake, "a  
hazardous wildlife attractant."


...

For the entire article, see
http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/ 
SB10001424052702304773104579270660999230736

--

Lenny Siegel
Executive Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
a project of the Pacific Studies Center
278-A Hope St., Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice: 650/961-8918 or 650/969-1545
Fax: 650/961-8918
<lsiegel@cpeo.org>
http://www.cpeo.org

_______________________________________________
Military mailing list
Military@lists.cpeo.org
http://lists.cpeo.org/listinfo.cgi/military-cpeo.org