St. Louis citizens fear radioactive contamination after landfill fire occurs near nuclear site

A fire brewing underneath the West Lake Landfill in St. Louis, Missouri, is feared to soon reach a nearby area containing 8,700 tons of leftover radioactive waste from the government’s Manhattan Project.

Just recently, an above-ground fire occurred at the landfill, heightening the concerns of those in the surrounding community. While the fire was immediately contained and extinguished, people are worried that the proximity between the landfill and the nuclear waste site might lead to contamination in the air and groundwater in the near future.

Last year, St. Louis created an emergency operations plan which acknowledged that there exists a “sub-surface smoldering event” that has been occurring for “several years” at the landfill. The plan further states that if the event “reaches the radiological area, there is a potential for radioactive fallout to be released in the smoke plume and spread throughout the region.”

The Environmental Protection Agency, however, remains unperturbed. In fact, the federal agency’s assessment concluded that the level of radon, a radioactive gas produced from nuclear waste, is “well below radon concentrations associated with elevated lung cancer risks.” It also dismissed concerns about groundwater contaminationsd.

On the other hand, both Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster and the Missouri Coalition for the Environment are taking a more proactive stance against possible contamination problems. The former has filed a lawsuit against Republic Services, the landfill’s owner, to have the site cleaned up. The latter, on the other hand, is actively proposing the cleanup of the radioactive site to prevent accidents in the future.

Source: 

TriplePundit.com