Missouri leaders are demanding the federal government accelerate its cleanup of nuclear waste that has been contaminating waterways and soil in parts of north St. Louis County for roughly 75 years and to pay people sickened by the waste.
U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley, Missouri legislators and statewide officials joined local advocacy groups on Thursday at the Weldon Spring Site to discuss the decadeslong complaints and worries that nuclear waste from the Manhattan Project is causing rare cancers in people who lived near Coldwater Creek and West Lake Landfill. Reporting by the Missouri Independent, MuckRock and the Associated Press published Wednesday found, through previously unreleased government documents, instances of federal regulators and companies downplaying the risk posed by the waste since the 1940s.
Nuclear contamination in the region dates back to the 1940s. Documents show executives of Mallinckrodt Chemical Works, which processed uranium in St. Louis, knew of the contamination risks in 1949. The company stored a highly radioactive residue in decaying steel drums at St. Louis Lambert International Airport near Coldwater Creek. Mallinckrodt leaders instructed workers to not move the drums because of the risk of the materials, according to a company memo.
Living near the creek posed a danger for her and her family, said Karen Nickel, co-founder of Just Moms STL, a group that has pushed for the cleanup of West Lake Landfill.
“In 2012, I learned about this issue,” Nickel said. “My parents had no idea that they moved their family into a neighborhood that was contaminated with radioactive waste from the Manhattan Project.”
Nickel said she and her family have developed illnesses that she believes were caused by exposure to the waste. Her granddaughter was born with a mass on her ovaries. Nuclear waste exposure is often associated with rare cancers and other diseases.
Hawley said he plans to introduce a Senate bill that would force the federal government to compensate people who have gotten sick from the nuclear waste. He also wants the U.S. Department of Energy to pay for cleanup efforts. Hawley said the victims who lived near the sites shouldn’t have to prove that the contamination made them sick.
Hawley and Rep. Cori Bush, D-St. Louis County, have led legislative efforts to clean up Jana Elementary School in Florissant, which sits near Coldwater Creek. A report from Boston Chemical Data Corp. last year found radioactive contamination at the school. The Hazelwood School District closed it soon after. While the Army Corps of Engineers tested the site and didn’t find any radioactive levels above background levels, Hawley and Bush’s bill would require the U.S. Department of Energy to review testing. (Local scientists have agreed with the Corps’ assessment that the school is safe.)
A spokesperson for the Department of Energy said in a statement that it doesn’t underestimate the impact nuclear programs has had on communities.
“The department proudly works alongside partners at the federal, state and local levels, including in Missouri, to protect the health and safety of community residents, and protection of the environment,” the statement read in part.
Cleanup for Coldwater Creek isn’t slated for completion until 2038. Just Moms STL is calling for it to be done in the next five years.
“We want the sites cleaned up swiftly,” said Dawn Chapman, co-founder of Just Moms STL. “We want real cleanups done, we want the most protected levels used.”
Chapman said she’s reached out to Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey’s office to open an investigation into the nuclear waste handling but has yet to hear back. The office did not immediately respond to St. Louis Public Radio’s requests for comment.
The reporting this week also found Nuclear Regulatory Commission officials in the 1970s had believed the nuclear waste was limited to a small area near West Lake Landfill, though testing requests from the Missouri Department of Natural Resources were ignored. The commission predicted that radium activity at West Lake Landfill would increase ninefold over 200 years.
For those who lived near the landfill and the creek, health concerns remain a constant worry.
Christen Commuso, community outreach specialist for Missouri Coalition for the Environment said she’s lived with various illnesses for years, including cancer, ovary masses and other tumors.
“I know the burden that we were forced to bear here,” Commuso said. “I will do everything I can in my power, until my last breath, to make sure that we are whole and that we are compensated and that we are restored, our homeland is given back to us.”
Corrections: A previous version of this article misidentified the school district that closed Jana Elementary School. It was the Hazelwood School District. The story also misstated the job title of Christen Commuso, community outreach specialist for Missouri Coalition for the Environment.
