Jeremy L. Dillon
RW Monitor
7/24/2015
Members of Missouri’s congressional delegation are calling on the Department of Energy to reconsider its rejection of the West Lake landfill cleanup for the Army Corps of Engineers’ Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program after a potential new waste stream emerged this week that would link the landfill to DOE legacy waste. The letter, signed by Sens. Claire McCaskill (D) and Roy Blunt (R) and Reps. William Lacy Clay (D) and Ann Wagner (R), asks Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz to issue a re-evaluation following DOE’s previous determination that the cleanup plan did not meet FUSRAP requirements. “Additionally new concerns have been raised by a [potential responsible party] that non-Cotter affiliated material may be present at the West Lake and Bridgeton sites, including material that was possibly under the jurisdiction of the DOE and its precursors when it was placed at the site,” the letter said. “Should such material in fact be present, a renewed inquiry into the sites inclusion in the FUSRAP would be merited. Given these issues, we request that DOE, in consultation with the Army Corps pursuant to the 1997 Memorandum of Understanding, reevaluate whether inclusion of the West Lake site into FUSRAP is appropriate.”
The letter appears to be motivated by recent revelations from the Cotter Corp., one of the site’s potential responsible parties, that helped identified the waste stream as potentially related to the government. Cotter has been looking into the public record and older documents to help alleviate public concern about what and where radiological material is located in the landfill. “The big driver here is transparency,” said John McGarhren, a lawyer representing Cotter Corp. “We believe the right remedy for the landfill is capping and containment, and that it makes no sense to dig up this landfill, which is in the flight path of the St. Louis Airport. In order for the public to be comfortable with the remedy that would leave the material in place, they have to have a full understanding of what’s in the landfill and where it is located.” McGarhren indicated, though, that Cotter does not believe that changing the lead agency in the cleanup would expedite the cleanup any faster than if the EPA continues heading the work.
Public outcry over the pace of the cleanup has led to calls for a more experienced agency to take over cleanup of the site from the Environmental Protection Agency. The EPA has brought in the Army Corps of Engineers to provide technical review and oversight of the site owner’s cleanup plans and activities at the location, but community leaders want the Corps to take the lead on the cleanup. The EPA said this week in response to the lawmakers’ letter, “If any party has credible scientific information about material in the landfill that can be independently and scientifically verified, EPA will welcome the opportunity to review it.” DOE declined to comment.
The West Lake Landfill cleanup project has taken on an added sense of urgency after recent reports revealed the site contains more radioactive waste closer to a nearby smoldering fire than previously thought. Currently, the West Lake Landfill is supervised by 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.
