Today, I testified before the Health & Human Services committee on Resolution 10 which pertains to the West Lake Landfill. The resolution calls for the site jurisdiction to be transferred from the EPA to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. This resolution passed out of committee and will go before the full board of Aldermen.

What is the West Lake Landfill, you may ask?

It’s about 200,000 yards of hot radioactive waste located in St. Louis County. The site houses nuclear waste which was dumped from the Mallinckrodt Chemical plant after processing uranium ore for nuclear bombs almost 66 years ago. This plant, albeit, in St. Louis County, affects all city residents due to its location within the Missouri River floodplain.

We all deserve clean drinking water and the WestLake landfill in its current form, poses a significant threat.  

The current method of containment by the EPA of the WestLake site is inadequate and serves as a continued threat to the health and welfare of both city and county residents. The EPA’s version of containing the radioactive site has triggered alarms from the environmental community, several of them testified at today’s hearing that the current ”surface top” method (piling soil and rocks over the waste site) is dangerous and hazardous to residents.

Several expert witnesses, including  Geologist & Hydrologist, Professor Robert Criss, spoke extensively about the impact the nuclear waste site has on the region, most importantly the leaching of the radioactive containments into our groundwater.

Should the full Board of Alderman pass Resolution 10, St. Louis City will join St. Louis County in calling for the immediate jurisdictional transfer of the West Lake site, in addition to the proper removal and excavation of the radioactive waste.  

Michael Berg, from Sierra Club, speaks in support of Resolution 10