Coldwater Creek

U.S. Rep. Cori Bush, D-St. Louis County, requested the U.S. Government Accountability Office evaluate the cleanup of the St. Louis County site contaminated by radioactive waste from the Manhattan Project.

The St. Ann Democrat has spent decades seeking a governmental response to radioactive waste contamination stemming from the Manhattan Project throughout the St. Louis region.

House Minority Leader Crystal Quade asked Gov. Mike Parson to call a special session on nuclear waste in the St. Louis area but faced criticism from grassroots activists.

Private companies and the federal government for decades failed to take actions to protect St. Louis residents from nuclear waste, an investigation by The Independent, MuckRock and The Associated Press found.

Nuclear contamination in the St. Louis region dates back to the 1940s. Documents show leaders of Mallinckrodt Chemical Works, which processed uranium in St. Louis, knew of the contamination risks in 1949.

The Missouri Independent, MuckRock and The Associated Press spent months combing through thousands of pages of previously-unreleased government records that show radioactive waste was known to pose a threat to people living near Coldwater Creek as early as 1949. But federal officials repeatedly wrote potential risks off as ‘slight,’ ‘minimal’ or ‘low-level.’

The Army Corps of Engineers says its testing shows Jana Elementary School is radiologically safe in three new reports.

The measure introduced by Sen. Josh Hawley has a companion version proposed in the House by Rep. Cori Bush.

On the same day officials released results saying the school is safe, U.S. Rep. Cori Bush introduced a bill to clean up the school and U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley announced he would take his legislation to the Senate floor to request unanimous passage.

The Hazelwood School District announced the decision at its school board meeting earlier this week. It comes about five months after a report found radioactive contamination at the school in north St. Louis County that is near Coldwater Creek.