A frustrated crowd gathered Tuesday afternoon to ask questions about the ongoing efforts to clean up radioactive waste at sites around north St. Louis County.
The meeting was the first of two held by the Environmental Protection Agency on Tuesday to launch an effort to improve communication and public understanding of the science and remediation efforts around Coldwater Creek.
“We know that some of the information that comes out is very technical, a lot of jargon, and sometimes people can use some extra help understanding that,” said Haley Gannon, who works for Skeo, a firm contracted by the EPA to put documents into plain language.
Efforts to clean up radioactive contamination at Superfund sites across the country are reliant on complicated science. The communities around these sites can ask the EPA for extra help in interpreting that information in processes known as a Technical Needs Assessment and Technical Assistance Services for Communities. A community request led to these processes for the sites around Coldwater Creek and the St. Louis airport.
These sites and others in St. Louis were contaminated when nuclear waste from World War II-era programs was improperly stored around the region. The ongoing effort to clean it up is being led by the Army Corps of Engineers and the EPA.
The challenges in communication between government agencies and the community were on display in questions attendees had Tuesday afternoon. Audience members wanted to know where waste was, asked if there are rights for people living near superfund sites and asked the officials to spell out terms, rather than speaking in acronyms.
Ashley Bernaugh became publicly involved in this issue as PTA president of Jana Elementary School, the school next to Coldwater Creek that closed in 2022 because of concerns over radioactive waste. She called for a “mythbuster paper” to help the community be clear on what is true and what is false.
“I don’t think we are mischaracterizing or misunderstanding,” Bernaugh said. “We need help and due diligence to make sure what is being reported from official channels is official.”
The contractors for the EPA will begin interviewing community members this week to hear what information gaps there are and to collect comments and questions. To sign up for an interview, individuals should contact Haley Gannon at hgannon@skeo.com. After the interviews, the EPA will put out a report that will be reviewed by the community.
