Officials within Environmental Protection Agency allegedly pressured an EPA review board to soften its criticism of the plan to handle the radioactive waste located at the West Lake Landfill, just outside St. Louis, according to a
report by the Wall Street Journal yesterday. The report continues in a long line of complaints about the EPA’s handling of the cleanup, with, most recently, Missouri’s congressional delegation calling on the Agency to give control of the site to the Army Corps of Engineers’ Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program. “West Lake was “politically hot” and led to “fireworks inside the agency,” said another person familiar with the matter, describing it as “a nasty affair” involving “unusual pressure” on the board from EPA officials,” the Wall Street Journal article said. “People familiar with the matter said they believed that at least part of the motivation for the pressure came from wanting to defend the previously announced plan to leave the waste in place. Removing it, they said, was seen as likely to be more complex and expensive and carry other risks.”
Currently, the West Lake Landfill is under the supervision of 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 a smoldering fire located near the radioactive part of the landfill. An EPA spokesman told RW Monitor yesterday that the Agency does not agree with the information in the Wall Street Journal article. “EPA has no information to support the assertions of this piece,” an EPA spokesman told RW Monitor. “EPA headquarters and regional representatives regularly participate in meetings of the National Remedy Review Board (NRRB). Collaboration between Superfund experts across the country helps inform effective decision-making.” The spokesman added that it was “important to note that conditions Bridgeton community remain protective of human health.”
