After years of bureaucratic inaction and escalating frustration and concern from the surrounding community, the Environmental Protection Agency has finally settled on a strategy to clean up the radioactive waste at the West Lake Landfill Superfund site in Bridgeton.
Compared with a proposal from earlier this year, the selected remedy is about $30 million cheaper and will be completed about one year faster.
The agency said late Wednesday that it would slightly modify its earlier proposal to partly remove the site鈥檚 contamination, employing 鈥渕ore flexibility鈥 by digging to varying depths to target spots where radioactivity is concentrated. The strategy is outlined in a record of decision, signed Thursday morning in Washington by the agency鈥檚 acting administrator, Andrew Wheeler.
The announcement caps years of anticipation and fierce debate. Concerned area residents have strongly called for full excavation of the site and remote disposal of its contents 鈥 the most thorough, and expensive, cleanup possible 鈥 while some groups responsible for covering remediation costs sought to have the site capped, which was the least expensive option weighed by the EPA.
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The chosen plan falls between those two options, and closely resembles the proposal put forward in February. That strategy, announced by former EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt, was dubbed 鈥淓xcavation Plus,鈥 and entailed partial removal of the site鈥檚 radioactive contaminants, followed by installation of a specially engineered cover as a form of long-term protection.
That proposal called for excavation to a depth of 16 feet across the site, which agency officials said would remove the bulk of the site鈥檚 radioactivity. Now, however, excavation depth will vary between 8 feet and 20 feet below the landfill鈥檚 surface.
鈥淲e鈥檙e going to have more flexibility as we excavate,鈥 Wheeler said Wednesday in a phone interview with the Post-Dispatch. 鈥淚n some areas, it will be as deep as 20 feet or perhaps as shallow as 8 feet. We鈥檙e going to decrease the amount of nonradioactive waste that needs to be removed from the site and focus our efforts on the radioactive waste.鈥
Agency officials said about 70 percent of the radioactivity at the site would be removed. They said radioactivity that remains in the unlined landfill will be at a depth where it is not expected to pose public health risks, and that groundwater will be monitored going forward.
The estimated $205 million cost will be shouldered by a handful of public and private entities deemed 鈥減otentially responsible parties鈥 that are liable for the site. The EPA said that allocation of those costs is decided among those parties, and 鈥渕ay not necessarily be evenly divided.鈥
Those entities include Republic Services 鈥 the company that operates the landfill through a subsidiary 鈥 the U.S. Department of Energy and Chicago-based Exelon Corp., whose subsidiary, ComEd, formerly owned the uranium processor, Cotter Corp.
The cleanup process is estimated to take about four and a half years to complete. About 18 months will be spent in a 鈥渄esign phase,鈥 while excavation and landfill cover construction is expected to take three years. The agency said it does not have a precise time frame but aims to begin the design phase 鈥渁s soon as possible鈥 and that it 鈥渨ill make every effort to get an enforceable agreement in place to fund and perform the design.鈥
The contamination removed from the site will be sent to an out-of-state site for disposal. EPA officials said that licensed facilities in Utah, Idaho, Michigan and Colorado were under consideration.
Wheeler emphasized that on-site and off-site safety would be priorities throughout the cleanup process. Considerations ranged from controlling dust to repelling birds from the open landfill.
鈥淭he most important thing are the concerns of people who live around the site,鈥 said Wheeler.
Radioactive waste stemming from the Manhattan Project in World War II was illegally dumped at the landfill in the 1970s. Although the site was added to the EPA Superfund program鈥檚 National Priorities List in 1990, it has languished for decades without the start of any remediation work.
Public scrutiny and concern about the site has exploded since 2010, when an underground fire 鈥 called a 鈥渟ubsurface smoldering event鈥 by officials 鈥 was detected in the adjacent Bridgeton Landfill. The fire has come to within several hundred yards of known radioactive contamination at West Lake, and has been slowed by an engineered cooling system that runs pipes into the landfill.
Though the EPA has never begun work to remediate West Lake, the agency reached a record of decision for the site once before, in 2008. That decision called for leaving contaminants in place and installing a cap over the site, but was re-evaluated and ultimately rescinded amid public backlash.
Wheeler said that, this time, the measure was 鈥渟et in stone.鈥
鈥淲e want to move forward in getting this cleaned up,鈥 he said.
鈥淲e spent a lot of time studying this site over the years. 鈥 We spent quite a bit of time this year looking at the proposal and the issues raised,鈥 Wheeler added. 鈥淲hat we鈥檝e come up with, we believe, is a better approach.鈥
Editor's note: This story was updated Thursday morning to reflect that the record of decision was signed.
Post-Dispatch coverage of the West Lake and Bridgeton landfills
A landfill is on fire in Bridgeton, and while such "smoldering events" do happen in landfills, this one is close to World War II-era radioactive waste. The Bridgeton Landfill abuts the West Lake Landfill. West Lake is where nuclear waste, the remnants of the Manhattan Project, was dumped decades ago.聽
Here is a highlight of some of the Post-Dispatch coverage of the landfill, the radiation and community concerns.
April 2022:聽Maps show contamination extending up to and, in at least a few places, slightly beyond the fence line of the Superfund site.
March 2022: Residents and officials emerged frustrated and concerned after hearing details about newly discovered areas of contamination.
On Sept. 30, a two-year-old lawsuit aimed at getting Mallinckrodt to help shoulder the looming $205 million cleanup at West Lake was dismissed…
The public and private entities responsible for covering the $205 million cost of聽the landfill鈥檚 cleanup聽are submitting design-phase work plan…
The report does not adequately address residents鈥 concerns that the site is contributing to family members鈥 cancers, birth defects and other c…
Now the owner of the Superfund trying to rope a company it contends is owned by the New York-based financial services giant Citigroup into the…
Republic Services 鈥 the waste hauler whose subsidiary, Bridgeton Landfill, owns the radioactive West Lake Landfill Superfund site 鈥 may have s…
Some of the debate and division that has long surrounded the high profile West Lake Landfill Superfund site in Bridgeton was not immediately d…
The agency said late Wednesday that it would slightly modify its earlier proposal to partly remove the site鈥檚 contamination, employing 鈥渕ore f…
Remedial work at the landfill has reduced emissions to levels that are unlikely to harm most people, according to state health officials.
The money could be used only as 鈥渃ompensation and restitution鈥 to communities within a four-mile radius of the now-shuttered landfill and to p…
鈥淚t鈥檚 a small step for a big problem. There鈥檚 a lot more that needs to happen,鈥 Chappelle-Nadal said. 鈥淲e鈥檝e got a long road ahead of us.鈥
As Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt faces a mounting list of ethics and spending complaints, many locally wonder how…
But at a packed and emotionally charged meeting in Bridgeton on Tuesday night, scores of speakers provided vocal, and largely critical, feedba…
The EPA said the proposed remedy, which it calls 鈥淓xcavation Plus,鈥 is expected to take five years to implement and will remove the 鈥渕ajority鈥…
The long string of speakers shared personal experiences 鈥 often recounting health complications suffered by loved ones 鈥 and voiced strong opi…
The results stand in contrast to a lawsuit filed in November by an area couple, Michael and Robbin Dailey, alleging that elevated levels of co…
Based on sampling conducted at the site, the state found "statistically significant evidence of contamination" affecting groundwater at and ar…
Fear, fueled by the popular perception of radiation risks and the slow response to the fire by landfill operator Republic Services and the Env…
The new map puts some of the newly discovered material in the northern quarry of the Bridgeton Landfill. But DNR has not raised any concerns i…
Construction was still months away because the agency has yet to hammer out a legal agreement with the company that would lead the project.
The county鈥檚 emergency plan says if the fire reaches contaminated areas of West Lake, 鈥渢here is a potential for radioactive fallout to be rele…
鈥淚 really want to assure the communities and families in 最新杏吧原创 that there is no imminent threat,鈥 EPA spokesman Curtis Carey said.
Companies potentially liable for the waste - and the cost of cleanup disagree on approach to the work.
鈥淭here鈥檚 some evidence that there could be other waste streams there,鈥 said Craig Nesbit, a spokesman for Exelon Generation.
The EPA had said the waste was contained within fenced areas of the adjacent West Lake Landfill.
Many want to see a full-scale risk assessment from the EPA that takes into account a landfill fire. The lack of a fire risk assessment has bee…
That frustration boiled over at an October meeting between residents and officials from the EPA. Some attendees shoved chairs and stormed out …
Officials said they would bring Pattonville parents鈥 concerns to the attention of the CDC for a possible evaluation of health risks at the two…
If the city鈥檚 concerns about bird strikes aren鈥檛 addressed, plans to build a barrier between the burning underground trash at Bridgeton Landfi…
Republic Services says dealing with the landfills has cost $125 million thus far, one of the most expensive environmental problems it faces. T…
Republic Services agreed to additional carbon monoxide testing to monitor movement of the fire in the Bridgeton Landfill that has been stoking…
The Army Corps of Engineers will help build an isolation barrier between an underground fire at the Bridgeton landfill and radioactive materia…
Anyone who accepts the settlement is prevented from filing any further nuisance claims for property damage due to the landfill鈥檚 odor.聽
He said a 2008 decision to leave radioactive wastes at West Lake in place ignored the fact that the site was in the Missouri River floodplain,…
鈥淲e鈥檝e had odors a few times since then,鈥 said Kathy Bell who lives in the Spanish Village neighborhood just southwest of the landfill. 鈥淏ut, …
The EPA had no answers to the questions and criticisms of those pushing to have the radioactive waste excavated and disposed of in a licensed …
Republic Services Inc. will place a plastic cap on its Bridgeton landfill by early September to control foul odors and extinguish an undergrou…
鈥淭he situation up there is distressing and terrible, and anybody who is living around that site has every right to complain,鈥 he said.
The odor coming from the Bridgeton Landfill is foul-smelling, but it鈥檚 not a health threat, according to testing done by the state this month.
The Missouri Department of Natural Resources first reported indications of a subsurface fire in January 2011.聽
February 2022: Years after charting a cleanup strategy, the EPA did not offer clear details or goals about how much longer that work might last.
