Jeremy L. Dillon
RW Monitor
5/30/2014
The Environmental Protection Agency wrapped up late last week radiation screening at the Bridgeton Municipal Athletic Complex, located next to the West Landfill near St. Louis, but the results have yet to be made public. 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.
The EPA estimates that the results of a quality assurance review and soil sample testing will take 30 to 60 days, but the agency maintains the site is protective of human health. "This agency maintains its position when we started this screening program that all scientifically validated data known to EPA and the State of Missouri confirm that BMAC remains suitable for use," EPA Region 7 Administrator Karl Brooks said in a statement. “If any further response is necessary, based on what the scientifically validated data tell us, we are prepared to work with the City to take appropriate action."
The public concern of the spread of radiological contamination from the West Lake Landfill has grown in recent weeks, especially in light of the news that a baseball field located near the landfill may potentially have some radiological hot spots. A group of concerned private citizens have 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 earlier this month to expand its efforts in testing for radiological contamination outside the fence-line of the landfill, and the EPA indicated that it had no plans at the time to expand the testing area because it said “no contamination has spread beyond the landfill and that the site remains protective of human health.”
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 a smoldering 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.
