The Missouri Congressional delegation is calling on the Environmental Protection Agency to relinquish control of the West Lake Landfill cleanup to the Army Corps of Engineers’ Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program in a letter to EPA Region 7 Administrator Karl Brooks. The letter, sent on Feb. 28 by Sens. Claire McCaskill (D) and Roy Blunt (R), along with Reps William Lacy Clay (D) and Ann Wagner (R), cited the Corps’ previous success as reason for the transfer. “Given the Corps’ expertise in this area and the local community’s faith in the Corps’ FUSRAP mission, we request that the EPA consider contracting directly with the Corps to handle any and all remediation needed at the site,” the letter said.
Currently, the West Lake Landfill is under the supervision of the Environmental Protection Agency’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 state legislature considered passing a resolution calling on the EPA to pass control to the Corps, mainly due to frustrations stemming from the pace of the cleanup.
