Sampling of a stormwater area at Missouri’s West Lake Landfill in June did not turn up any radiologically impacted material (RIM), the Environmental Protection Agency reported Wednesday.
The landfill, which is adjacent to the Bridgeton Landfill, where an underground fire has been burning since 2010, contains waste from the former uranium production facility at Mallinckrodt Chemical Works in St. Louis. Residents, lawmakers, and environmentalists have long criticized EPA’s 25-year cleanup effort at the contaminated site. Radiologically impacted material refers to contaminated substances at the site.
The EPA oversaw the split sampling, which involved the site’s potentially responsible parties (PRPs): the Department of Energy, Laidlaw Waste Systems (Bridgeton), Inc. (n/k/a Bridgeton Landfill, LLC), Rock Road Industries, Inc., and Cotter Corporation (N.S.L.). The PRPs collected three of five planned samples, forgoing the other two because of standing water, according to the EPA. The samples were taken in the North Surface Water body, an area inundated with water throughout the year. Stormwater drains into that area from the West Lake Landfill, Crossroads Industrial Park, and St. Charles Rock Road.
All samples registered readings that were below the EPA definition for RIM of 7.9 picocuries per gram of combined radium and/or combined thorium, the agency said.
The EPA in January and March took a total of five split sediment samples at West Lake, while overseeing sampling from the PRPs, as well. One of those samples, located along the northeast edge of the landfill, contained material that met the definition of RIM, prompting the EPA to order the PRPs to collect five additional sediment samples.
The Missouri Coalition for the Environment has maintained that EPA should be testing the entirety of the 200-acre Superfund site, most notably the North Quarry area. In the past the organization’s policy director, Ed Smith, has said finding radioactive material at the site is like trying to find chocolate chips in cookie dough.
Editor’s Note: An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that Exelon is a potentially responsible party at the West Lake Landfill. The article also incorrectly stated that B&K Construction illegally dumped materials at the site.
