The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said it could not clean up Missouri’s West Lake Landfill Superfund site any faster than the Environmental Protection Agency, which state lawmakers have been trying to take off the job.
That’s one of the takeaways from a June 2 letter a top Corps official sent to Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.), chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. The Bridgeton, Mo., landfill, which contains radioactive waste from the former uranium production facility at Mallinckrodt Chemical Works in St. Louis, is adjacent to the Bridgeton Landfill, where an underground fire has been burning since 2010. Environmentalists and residents in the area have joined in criticizing EPA’s more-than-25-year cleanup effort at the site, railing against the agency’s monitoring of radioactive material.
The U.S. Senate in February passed legislation that would transfer cleanup authority from EPA to the Corps’ Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program (FUSRAP), and companion legislation is pending review in the House.
“The addition of the site to the FUSRAP program would not accelerate remediation at the (West Lake Landfill),” FUSRAP Director of Civil Works Steven Stockton wrote. “The FUSRAP program would only address the cleanup of low level radiological material at the site, which is only one issue of concern at the landfill. … Transferring the site to FUSRAP would subject the site to the limitations of the FUSRAP budget and appropriations process, and its necessary prioritization with respect to the sites currently competing for the program’s limited appropriations. Additionally, there is no guarantee that the ultimate cleanup actions would be different than those which would occur under the current process.”
Stockton noted that the Corps does not take a position for the administration in support of or in opposition to pending legislation. If enacted, he said, the Corps would execute cleanup of the site.
House and Senate energy and water appropriations bills for fiscal 2017 both propose to fund FUSRAP at $103 million, which is about $50 million less than the program’s annual funding levels from 1998 to 2008. Estimated costs to complete radioactive waste removal with an off-site disposal remedy at West Lake range from $259 million to $415 million, according to the EPA. Those numbers exclude annual costs to operate, monitor, and maintain the disposal facility.
EPA expects to propose a final cleanup remedy at the West Lake site by the end of 2016. The work will involve installation of a landfill cover, application of groundwater monitoring and protection standards, and surface water runoff control, among other items.
Stockton said the exact cleanup timeline, if the Corps took over, would depend on several factors, most notably the prioritization of about 25 other sites included in the FUSRAP program, a program initiated in 1974 to identify, clean, and control sites contaminated from atomic weapons and energy programs during the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s. Six FUSRAP sites currently account for 80 percent of program funding.
Landowner Republic Services is currently paying for cleanup of the West Lake site. Stockton noted that a Corps takeover might include some uncertainty surrounding the agency’s ability to bill Republic Services, because the Corps does not have regulatory or enforcement authority. The Corps likely would work with EPA and the Department of Justice in addressing cost responsibilities.
“A shift to the FUSRAP program would certainly impact the current situation where it is anticipated that the (potentially responsible parties) will pay all costs upfront,” Stockton wrote. “Under FUSRAP and working through the legal process it is not clear what the outcome or timing would be.”
He noted that even if the Corps takes over, EPA has final say on the site cleanup remedy, as West Lake is on EPA’s National Priorities List of contaminated sites and therefore EPA maintains jurisdiction.
Corps authority would only cover radioactive contamination at West Lake, so it would not impact an isolation barrier project that Republic Services and EPA have proposed at the facility in response to public backlash. The barrier is meant to ensure that the underground fire at Bridgeton doesn’t come into contact with nuclear waste material at West Lake.
The Corps would not be able to take over at West Lake until it receives permission from Republic Services, which typically takes several months or longer, Stockton said. Engineering, design, and contract procurement would also need to be completed.
