2013 CPEO Military List Archive

From: Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>
Date: Mon, 30 Dec 2013 07:24:54 -0800 (PST)
Reply: cpeo-military
Subject: [CPEO-MEF] RADIATION, FORMER SITES: West Lake Landfill, St. Louis suburbs, Missouri
 
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

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