A second defendant has been added to a lawsuit seeking to recoup costs for the remediation of the radioactively contaminated West Lake Landfill in Missouri.
Then, in a petition filed Thursday, landfill owner Bridgeton Landfill LLC suggested it would add yet another defendant to the complaint: multinational investment bank Citigroup.
On Oct. 23, Bridgeton Landfill sued Mallinckrodt LLC for an unspecified portion of prior and future cleanup costs for the facility near St. Louis. In a “First Amended Complaint” filed Nov. 1 in U.S. District Court for Eastern Missouri, the company expanded its lawsuit to include EverZinc USA.
The then-Mallinckrodt Chemical Works processed uranium in St. Louis from 1942 to 1957, generating residues and other waste that were eventually transported to the West Lake Landfill. Some of that waste was produced by refining uranium ore and ore concentrates as part of the World War II Manhattan Project that were delivered by African Metals Corp., an EverZinc predecessor.
African Metals, now EverZinc, “retained ownership, for a period of time, of Manhattan Project residues from uranium refining activities,” a spokesperson for Bridgeton Landfill owner Republic Services said by email Monday. “Some of those residues … led to the contamination of West Lake Landfill. We believe that EverZinc, like Mallinckrodt, should have a seat at the table.”
The language of the amended complaint suggested additional defendants could be added later to the lawsuit, but the spokesperson at the time declined to comment on that possibility.
EverZinc USA, the U.S. branch of Belgian zinc chemicals producer EverZinc, could not be reached for comment this week.
In its Nov. 8 motion for early discovery, Bridgeton Landfill said records from the Atomic Energy Commission show that a firm called Commercial Discount Corp. possessed and arranged for the hazardous material to be disposed of at West Lake.
“Plaintiff reasonably believes the assets and liabilities of Commercial Discount Corporation reside in a subsidiary of Citigroup Inc., but cannot readily identify that subsidiary from publicly-available records,” according to the motion. “Limited early discovery is necessary to locate and join the correct subsidiary of Citigroup Inc. in this lawsuit.”
Republic Services is one of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s potentially responsible parties for removal of radioactive material from West Lake. The others are power company Exelon and the Department of Energy.
In September, the EPA finalized its plan for cleanup at West Lake – excavating radiologically impacted material greater than 52.9 picocuries per gram down to 12 feet in most cases of contamination, though some digs could go as deep as 20 feet.
The potentially responsible parties are on the hook for funding and carrying out the job, which is expected to cost $205 million and last three years. The Republic Services spokesperson said he did not believe mediation on the cost sharing had begun.
