The story of World War II-era nuclear waste being mishandled in St. Louis is long and winding—and it may have begun yet another chapter this week. On Monday, the Department of Justice sued the Denver-based company that more than a half-century ago was contracted to handle thousands of tons of nuclear waste in Hazelwood. The DOJ alleges that the Cotter Corporation left a toxic mess behind and should reimburse the feds for the tens of millions of dollars the Army Corps of Engineers spent over the course of two decades cleaning it up.
Cotter’s role handling—and mishandling—nuclear waste in St. Louis was chronicled in a deep dive co-published by the Missouri Independent and the Riverfront Times last year. Reporter Allison Kite wrote that Cotter took charge of thousands of tons of nuclear waste stored on Latty Avenue near the St. Louis airport in 1966. It shipped much of that material to Colorado, but without telling regulators, it also mixed tons of uranium with topsoil and dumped it at the West Lake Landfill in Bridgeton.
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That move created years’ worth of problems and health concerns, but the lawsuit filed Monday is solely focused on the Latty Avenue site, which the Army Corps allegedly spent $88 million cleaning up between 1997 and 2020. Those millions are in addition to direct costs incurred by Corps in removing 39,500 cubic yards of contaminated soil.
The Corps is largely finished remedying some areas of the site, the suit says, though “potentially significant additional” work remains at others.
Why It Matters: Though the Latty Avenue site’s hazards haven’t received as much attention as the West Lake Landfill (which sits near a neighboring landfill’s underground fire), the lawsuit filed Monday says that over the course of decades, the Latty site has flooded, causing radioactive water runoff that flowed to nearby properties.
Also named in the suit is Norfolk Southern Railway, which has owned portions of the Latty Avenue site since 1945. (Neither company returned calls seeking comment yesterday.)
What’s Next: With a new president next year comes new leadership, both at the DOJ and elsewhere in the federal government. Worth noting is that Trump’s former campaign manager and incoming chief of staff Susie Wiles was previously paid $140,000 to lobby on behalf of Republic Services, the owner of the West Lake Landfill.
