The resignation of controversy-plagued Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt will not change the federal approach for cleanup of the radioactively contaminated West Lake Landfill in Missouri, according to the agency.
On July 5, Pruitt submitted his resignation to President Donald Trump following a 17-month term in office in which he was battered by a series of reports about his spending habits, use of agency personnel, and attempts to secure high-paying employment for his wife, among other issues.
In February, Pruitt announced partial excavation as the EPA’s preferred option for removing radioactive soil left for decades at the West Lake Landfill, a section of an EPA Superfund site near St. Louis. The project is forecast to cost $236 million over five years and would deal with all contaminated material posing “unacceptable risks” to the public, the agency said at the time.
“EPA has completed an extended public comment period and has been reviewing those comments as part of the CERCLA process,” a spokesperson for EPA Region 7 said by email on July 6. “EPA is now developing the final Record of Decision amendment and Response to Comments, which will be released when complete. There are no planned schedule changes.”
Recent reports indicated the amended record of decision would be finalized in September, enabling the EPA to move ahead with the cleanup plan. The agency spokesperson said there was nothing else to report regarding the schedule for completion of the administrative process.
The EPA took comments on its planned approach through April 23, with a public meeting held March 6 in Bridgeton, Mo. The amendment will update a 2008 record of decision on West Lake – which called for leaving the contaminated material under a new cover – to reflect the new planned waste removal approach for Operable Unit 1 of the Superfund site.
West Lake in 1973 received roughly 8,700 tons of leached barium sulfate left from development of the atomic bomb in World War II, which was combined with contaminated soil to cover refuse at the landfill. The EPA intends to remove all “radiologically impacted material” down to 16 feet below surface left with a radiation level greater than 52.9 picocuries per gram. An engineered cover would then be built over the impacted area.
Last year, Pruitt directed that the EPA administrator must approve Superfund cleanups projected to cost $50 million or more. That would apply to West Lake.
The rule is cause for concern if the new administrator – the position is now held on an acting basis by EPA Deputy Administrator Andrew Wheeler – must first become familiar with the project before approving the spending, according to one local advocate for the cleanup.
“Two of our concerns are that the new Administrator will of course have to become familiar with the site and what he will be signing,” which could stall progress, Karen Nickel, co-founder of Just Moms STL, said in a Facebook post on July 5. “[T]he other thing we are concerned about is Scott Pruitt committed to personally signing all clean ups over 50 Million dollars. So we do not really know who will actually be signing our ROD.”
The regional spokesperson referred additional questions on West Lake to EPA headquarters in Washington, D.C., which did not respond by deadline Friday for RadWaste Monitor.
The “potentially responsible parties” for cleanup at West Lake, which would have to pay for the work, include the Department of Energy, power company Exelon, and site owner Republic Services.
