Karl Herchenroeder
RW Monitor
1/8/2016
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has announced that it will build an isolation barrier at the West Lake Landfill Superfund site in Bridgeton, Mo., to ensure that an underground fire doesn’t come into contact with nuclear waste material.
EPA Region 7 Administrator Mark Hague announced the decision last week for West Lake, a site that contains radioactive waste from former uranium production at the Mallinckrodt Chemical Works in St Louis.
“Finding a solution to mitigate the potential impacts of a subsurface smoldering event is a top priority for the community, and a top priority for EPA,” Hague said of the project, which will also include the installation of additional engineering controls, such as cooling loops. “Today’s announcement is the first step in moving forward with the installation of a physical barrier and other engineering controls to address this issue.”
Ed Smith, with the Missouri Coalition for the Environment citizens’ group, said Thursday the isolation barrier plan does not “rise to the level of the problem” Missouri has at West Lake, saying the EPA would have been better served focusing on the removal of radioactive material in the two years it has spent planning for the isolation structure. The plan was hatched through an agreement between landfill operator Republic Services and the Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster.
“There was never a conversation: Is this barrier the best plan?” Smith said, adding that there is no plan in place to extinguish the smoldering fire at the adjacent Bridgeton Landfill. “Removing the radioactive materials would be our preference. … The actions of the landfill company in opposition to the community’s efforts is deplorable.”
Republic Services representatives could not be reached immediately for comment.
The coalition and other environmental groups have lambasted the agency’s 25-year cleanup effort at the site, calling for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to take over cleanup duties. Public backlash over the pace of remediation increased last year when residents raised concerns about the waste’s proximity to the fire.
KMOX Radio in St. Louis reported Wednesday that representatives from the Westlake Landfill citizens’ group Just Moms STL are traveling to Washington, D.C., to meet with members of Congress next month. They are requesting that management of the site be transferred from the EPA to the Corps of Engineers. In November, Missouri’s congressional delegation introduced legislation that would fulfill the request. A statement from Sens. Roy Blunt (R) and Claire McCaskill (D) and Reps. Ann Wagner (R) and William Lacy Clay Jr. (D) called the EPA’s 25-year effort to clean the landfill “stagnant” and “unacceptable.”
When asked what would happen if the fire reaches the radioactive material, EPA Region 7 spokeswoman Angela Brees said by email the EPA’s Office of Research and Development has evaluated the conditions at the landfill, along with data collected on the subsurface smoldering event’s (SSE) temperature and gas concentrations to date.
“Based on their evaluation, the agency believes that should the SSE come into contact with the radiologically impacted material (RIM), the RIM would not become reactive or explosive at the temperatures typically observed in an SSE,” Brees wrote. “An SSE would likely increase the rate at which landfill gases are released. We would anticipate an increase in release of gases from the landfill through surface cracks or fissures that may form. These gasses could be released as steam, radon and potentially other gases (as determined by the composition of the materials present).”
Her office is completing its “Phase 1 D” study, an assessment of radiological material across areas 1 and 2 at the site. The report is under final review, she said, and should be made public soon.
According to the EPA’s statement, the agency is working on the barrier with the Missouri Department of Natural Resources, the Army Corps of Engineers, and other stakeholders. Construction will be carried out under EPA direction and oversight, with support from the Corps of Engineers, the press release states. The agency said it will disclose the location of the barrier when plans are finalized.
EPA Reviewing West Lake Landfill Study
The EPA is reviewing a recent study that claims fugitive radon gas is escaping the West Lake Landfill, causing elevated levels of lead in the suburbs of St. Louis, Brees said Wednesday.
The official said the agency received the document last week and is studying the findings. The study, which was published in the peer-reviewed Journal of Environmental Radioactivity, was prepared by the Boston Chemical Corp. and the Institute for Policy Studies. The authors claim that 48 percent of their 287 soil samples contained lead-210 concentrations above Department of Energy limits for residential farming.
“We received it last week, and we’re reviewing it now,” Brees said.
Under EPA oversight, landfill owner Republic Services conducts its own regular air monitoring. In an email, Brees said the monitoring currently includes analyzing for radon-222 and lead-210 at 13 on-site locations for the purpose of establishing preconstruction, or baseline, conditions at the site.
