Jeremy L. Dillon
RW Monitor
7/3/2014
The baseball field near the West Lake Landfill in Bridgeton, Mo. is suitable for public use, the Environmental Protection Agency concluded this week after conducting a gamma radiation screening of the site. The results of the test, conducted in early May, revealed that the Bridgeton Municipal Athletic Complex has only background radiation levels on par to other local parks. The EPA had faced mounting community pressure to test the site after a private citizen’s test showed a spike near a drainage ditch by the field. The screening collected data from 60,000 points along 45 miles of transecting lines while also collecting 100 soil samples for laboratory testing, the EPA said. “EPA’s analysis of data collected from more than 58,000 surface points across BMAC suggests no levels of gamma radiation that would pose public health concerns for users of this facility,” EPA Regional Administrator Karl Brooks said in a statement. “This was a thorough scientific survey, coupled with meticulous review and quality control checks of the data.”
The public concern of the spread of radiological contamination from the West Lake Landfill has grown in recent months, especially in light of the news that the baseball field located near the landfill may have been contaminated. A group of concerned private citizens had been testing properties adjacent to the landfill, and one of their tests indicated a spike of an unknown isotope near a drainage ditch by the baseball field. Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster called on the EPA in May to expand its efforts in testing for radiological contamination outside the fence-line of the landfill.
The West Lake Landfill cleanup project has taken on an added sense of urgency after recent reports revealed that the site contains more radioactive waste closer to a nearby smoldering fire than previously thought. Currently, the West Lake Landfill is under the supervision of the EPA’s Superfund program, which took over responsibility for the site in 1990. The EPA is conducting an engineering survey and groundwater analysis of the site to determine the best location to construct an isolation barrier to prevent the spread of the fire located near the radioactive part of the landfill. The EPA has also brought in the Army Corps of Engineers to help in the construction of the barrier, as well as with the cleanup of the site, after public outcry called for a more experienced approach to the cleanup.
