GJEP’s podcast, Breaking Green is helping break the story that the US EPA is stalling out on its 2018 commitment to clean up a radioactive landfill that has an underground fire near known radiation contamination.
Following up on a February 23rd GJEP press release, the Associated Press and St. Louis on the Air are reporting on the shocking story of the radioactive landfill fire.
Dawn Chapman, Co-Founder of Just Moms STL, told Breaking Green in an exclusive interview that the EPA is now signaling that there is no clear schedule to clean up radioactive waste in a Bridgeton, MO landfill. The landfill, which is releasing radioactive pollution due to an underground fire in the landfill, was highlighted in the HBO documentary Atomic Homefront. The waste was generated in St. Louis when weapons-grade uranium was refined for use in the top-secret Manhattan project that produced the first atomic bomb.
During her interview with Breaking Green, Chapman discussed unusually high incidents of sickness and death in her community and how they have been told to be prepared to shelter in place if the underground fire reaches dense regions of radioactivity.
Both the Associated Press and St. Louis on the Air contacted GJEP and Breaking Green about the press release and the EPA’s apparent lack of commitment to the promised cleanup.
The interview may be heard on Breaking Green, a podcast by Global Justice Ecology Project, wherever you get your
St. Louis on the Air may be found at this link.
Landfill cleanup slowed after more nuclear waste found
By Jim Salter Associated Press 18 Mar 2022
BRIDGETON, Mo. — Nuclear waste buried in a Missouri landfill that sits near an underground smolder is more extensive than first believed, and is part of the reason the $205 million Superfund project that began nearly four years ago has been delayed, an Environmental Protection Agency spokesman said Friday.
The EPA announced a plan in September 2018 to remove some of the radioactive material at West Lake Landfill in the St. Louis suburb of Bridgeton, and cap the rest. The waste sits a few hundred yards from an adjacent landfill that has dealt with an underground smolder for more than a decade.
The EPA originally estimated the project would take about four years but now offers no timetable. The delay has prompted concerns from neighboring residents and local and federal political leaders.
EPA spokesman Ben Washburn said in an email that the initial timeline was based “on the best available data from site investigations” prior to the 2018 announcement. But data collected at the project “resulted in the need for additional investigation.”
To read more visit: https://abcnews.go.com/amp/Politics/wireStory/landfill-cleanup-slowed-nuclear-waste-found-83535338
