Photography courtesy of Missouri Department of Natural Resources
There’s a new cause for concern in North County’s smelly landfill saga, where an underground fire is smoldering uncomfortably close to a nuclear waste dump.
First, a little background: About a year ago, Attorney General Chris Koster sued Republic Services, the company responsible for the Bridgeton Landfill, alleging violations of environmental law. An underground fire had been burning there for two years, and it was getting worse. Neighbors complained of a terrible odor. Just to the north of the Bridgeton Landfill is the West Lake Landfill, where nuclear waste was dumped decades ago. Despite cries from nearby residents, the Environmental Protection Agency had refused to remove the radioactive material.
Concerned observers raised a simple question: What happens if the fire reaches the nuclear waste?
Koster wanted Republic Services to end the smoldering, so St. Louis wouldn’t have to find out. The company said the fire, at the south end of the Bridgeton Landfill, was far from the waste and moving slowly. But it developed an improvement plan, which called for drilling gas-extraction wells and putting a cap over the landfill.
In a letter to the EPA and Republic Services on Tuesday, however, Koster revealed that new test results show the waste is not contained in the West Lake site. Some radioactive material has been discovered in the northern end of the Bridgeton Landfill, closer to the fire.
“Over the past year, Republic has taken steps to slow the spread of the fire, but recent developments suggest that these measures do not address the entire problem,” Koster writes. “It now appears that radioactive material…may be spread more widely than originally thought and may be present in the north quarry of the Bridgeton landfill. Republic and EPA must act aggressively to address this apparent relocation.”
Koster goes on to note that if waste is truly present in the Bridgeton Landfill, the EPA should assume responsibility for it. The entire area is an EPA Superfund site, but currently, the agency oversees only West Lake, while the Bridgeton Landfill remains under the regulatory supervision of the Missouri Department of Natural Resources.
He also asks that efforts to contain the fire be expedited and that surveying be done to ascertain just how far the radioactive material has spread. Specifically, he requests the rapid construction of a barrier between the fire and the waste. “Last September, Republic announced its intention to build an isolation barrier to separate the radiological material…from the smoldering fire in the southern part of the Bridgeton landfill,” Koster writes. “Over six months have passed, yet construction of the barrier still has not begun.”
Karl Brooks, EPA Region Seven administrator, responded in a statement. “We expect continued robust discussions on how best to align both the federal and state level efforts to manage the West Lake and Bridgeton sites,” Brooks said. “We are committed to keeping the public informed with accurate and timely information.”
Republic Services put out a statement of its own. “The safety of both sites is our highest priority,” said spokesperson Richard Callow. “While site surveys are ongoing, we are committed to the rapid construction of an isolation barrier, once a plan by regulatory authorities has been approved.”
People who live nearby are hoping for less talk and more action, though.
