最新杏吧原创

ST. LOUIS COUNTY 鈥� The federal government wants to test water and soil at a popular hiking spot in north 最新杏吧原创 County for possible contamination from nuclear radiation.

The hiking trails at Fort Belle Fontaine Park, owned by 最新杏吧原创 County, run along Coldwater Creek. The creek and its watershed were contaminated by toxic waste from the development of atomic weapons in the 1940s and 鈥�50s 鈥� and today park visitors often explore and play in the creek bed.

鈥淭he mere fact that they have to go and look for radioactive waste and that I鈥檝e seen kids and people in that creek makes me sick,鈥� said Dawn Chapman, co-founder of Just Moms STL, which advocates for Coldwater Creek cleanup and awareness. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a straight-up F for failure for not communicating.鈥�

A division of the Army Corps is responsible for cleanup of Coldwater Creek, which stretches 19 miles from 最新杏吧原创 Lambert International Airport to the Missouri River. The federal Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program, or FUSRAP, asked the 最新杏吧原创 County Council for permission last week to begin . The council could consider it Tuesday.

鈥淲e are sampling and testing all the way to the Missouri River and testing all the properties within the floodplain along Coldwater Creek,鈥� Jon Rankins, a health physicist for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, said in a prepared statement. 鈥淚n the case of Fort Belle Fontaine Park, we want to collect verification samples to identify any historic contamination that may have been deposited in the park.鈥�

FUSRAP wants broad access to Fort Belle Fontaine to collect samples and do any necessary remediation in the 306-acre park, north of Spanish Lake and about 3 miles west of the confluence of the Mississippi and Missouri rivers.

The park鈥檚 3-mile hiking trail loops through upland prairie, wetlands and wooded trails. From the top of a massive limestone staircase built by the Works Progress Administration in the 1930s, visitors can observe sweeping views of the Missouri River.

County parks department spokeswoman Anne Radford said that the public isn鈥檛 technically allowed access to the creek from hiking trails. But there is no signage posted, she acknowledged. And it鈥檚 not uncommon to see people, who can easily get down to the creek from the trail via several well-worn footpaths, wading and exploring the creek bed, especially in warmer months.

鈥淎 no-trespassing is the very least that has to happen,鈥� Chapman said. 鈥淚 seriously doubt if the Army Corps approaches the county about signs that 最新杏吧原创 County is going to say, 鈥楴o.鈥欌��

In 2016, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended people .

The department doesn鈥檛 track how many people visit Fort Belle Fontaine annually, Radford said. A state youth justice facility sits up on a hill within the park boundaries. The Missouri Division of Youth Services did not respond to a request for comment Monday. There鈥檚 also a police K-9 training area in the park.

The toxic mess from World War II-era contamination has been a recurrent headache for north 最新杏吧原创 County communities. From 1942 to 1957, Mallinckrodt Chemical Co. secretly processed uranium ore on the Mississippi riverfront north of downtown 最新杏吧原创. Radioactive byproducts were stored at a location on Lambert airport鈥檚 northern border next to Coldwater Creek. The byproducts were later trucked about a mile away to an industrial area also bordering Coldwater Creek in the 9200 block of Latty Avenue.

Last fall, Hazelwood School District announced it would close Jana Elementary in Florissant over concerns about radioactive contamination. And about 17 miles west of Fort Belle Fontaine at the West Lake Landfill Superfund site in Bridgeton, residents have long complained of a lack of transparency from the federal government over cleanup.

The main storage sites 鈥� the sources of contamination 鈥� have mostly been cleaned up. The Army Corps鈥� focus has shifted to testing Coldwater Creek, which travels through Hazelwood, Florissant, Black Jack, unincorporated 最新杏吧原创 County and a sliver of Berkeley. FUSRAP is supposed to complete cleanup by 2038.

The park land, with its access to waterways and hilltop views, was used strategically in the early 19th century. In May 1804, the Lewis and Clark expedition spent the first night of their journey on an island opposite from Coldwater Creek, according to the . Later that year, United States signed a treaty with the Sac and Fox tribes promising trade, according to . The park鈥檚 name dates back to 1805 when the U.S. military built a fort on the land, its first military installation west of the Mississippi River.

The city of 最新杏吧原创 acquired the property in 1913 and built a detention home and training school for boys. In the wake of the Great Depression, the Works Progress Administration built the Grand Staircase and other stonework features as a summer retreat for city dwellers.

最新杏吧原创 County began operating Fort Belle Fontaine park in 1986. In 2016, the fort was added to the National Register of Historic Places.