Problems
Mixed-waste landfill
The West Lake Landfill HotSpot is a closed, unlined mixed waste landfill located in Bridgton, Missouri that has posed a serious environmental hazard to the world for decades. West Lake Landfill houses some 8,700 tons of radioactive waste illegally dumped there in 1973, residue from the Manhattan Project, a program to develop nuclear bombs during World War II and the Cold War. Mixed with about 38,000 tons of soil, the waste was used to cover the trash dumped daily. In the past, the landfill was used for limestone mining and disposal of industrial waste, construction debris, and municipal solid waste. Soil mixed with uranium ore processing residue and other materials from the Hazelwood Temporary Storage Site was also moved to the site and used for landfill operations. The site is being investigated and cleaned up under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA). The site is contaminated with radioactive waste and contaminants commonly found in solid waste landfills. The landfill: ● contains a significant amount of radiotoxic wastes that are not adequately characterized, and that have the potential for the mobility of these wastes due to groundwater fluctuation and comingled solvents; ● is in a densely populated area and has no engineered barriers; ● is experiencing the latest of at least two subsurface fires over the past 21 years; ● and is on the alluvial floodplain approximately miles from the Missouri River in which the water table recurringly rises and falls by several feet, often within a few feet of the surface.
The Threat of Radioactive Poisoning
West Lake was never designed to contain radioactive waste. The landfill has no lining to keep toxins from leaching into the soil and groundwater. Tests indicate that some radioactive waste has already seeped into the groundwater. West Lake Landfill lies in the Missouri River floodplain, upstream from the intake valves for the drinking water supply for the entire St. Louis metropolitan region. Flooding can also allow nuclear waste to migrate to new areas, both inside and outside the landfill. The Bridgeton area is very susceptible to tornados, earthquakes, and fires—any of which could release radioactive dust or smoke into the air. A subsurface fire smoldering in the adjoining Bridgeton Landfill is moving steadily toward the radioactive wastes in the West Lake Landfill. No one knows for certain what will happen when the fire reaches the radioactive wastes, but a potential disaster looms. Beginning in 2010, the widespread noxious fumes from the underground fire have alerted many to the dangers lurking in the adjoining landfills. Even though these concerns were repeatedly raised with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and despite the extraordinary risks created by subsurface fires, the agency issued a Record of Decision in 2008 which allows for “in place disposal” of these wastes subject to institutional controls with a cap over radiologically contaminated areas. Despite the conclusion reached in 1988 by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission that hazards of the wastes likely warranted removal and isolation, it appears that EPA was inclined toward in-place disposal at least eight years before it decided to this was formalized. Of significance is the fact that the largest estimated amount of thorium-230, a long-lived, highly radiotoxic element is present at West Lake - more than any other U.S. nuclear weapons storage or disposal site. Soil concentrations of radium-226 and thorium-230 are substantially greater than uranium mill tailing waste. The waste residues generated at the Mallinckrodt site were found to contain the largest concentration of thorium-230 from any single source in the United States and possibly the world. Thorium-230 concentrations were found to be some 25,000 times greater than its natural isotopic abundance. With a half-life of 77,500 years, thorium-230 makes up more than 80% of the measured radioactivity in the soil at West Lake above cleanup limits set by the Department of Energy (DOE). Moreover, as the thorium-230 decays to radium-226, it will increase the radioactivity in the landfill 10 to 100 times over 9,100 years.
Current management of the West Lake Landfill environmental problem
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is the lead regulatory authority over the site, with the department’s Federal Facilities section providing a support and assistance role. The department staff provides technical reviews on decision documents, work plans, designs, investigations, and reports. Depending on the nature of the activity and the content of the documents, the department may coordinate with other programs and state entities to respond appropriately. Staff periodically conduct site visits and occasionally perform independent investigations and sampling in the vicinity of West Lake Landfill.
Gallery
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Timelines
2023
November
U.S. Senator Josh Hawley questioned Bruno Pigott, Principal Deputy Assistant Administrator for the Office of Water at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Senator Hawley called on the EPA to immediately clean up the radioactive contamination at the West Lake Landfill Superfund Site in Bridgeton, Mo. “This has got to stop, and we need the EPA to clean this site up,” said Senator Hawley.
March
EPA finds radioactive contamination in more areas of West Lake Landfill. Despite pleas from community members who say the landfill is responsible for mysterious illnesses, federal environmental regulators said they can’t provide a timeline for cleanup Radioactive waste in the West Lake Landfill is more widespread than previously thought, officials from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said. The finding is based on two years of testing at the St. Louis County site, which has held thousands of tons of radioactive waste for decades. An underground “fire” in another area of the landfill threatens to exacerbate the issue, which residents believe is responsible for a host of mysterious illnesses. Chris Jump, the EPA’s remedial project manager for the site, said the findings don’t change the agency’s planned cleanup strategy or the level of risk the site poses to the surrounding residents. The radioactive waste is still within the footprint of the landfill, she said. “The site boundaries themselves aren’t expanding, but the area that will need the radioactive protective cover is larger than previously known,” Jump said. The findings, Jump said, show that there is radioactive contamination in parts of the landfill that the EPA didn’t think were impacted. Jump said radioactive material was found at the surface of the landfill in a restricted area. It was quickly covered with rock, she said. And a drainage ditch between the West Lake site and the road had contamination between two and 10 feet below the surface.
2018
January 01
In February 2018 EPA head Scott Pruitt announced a proposed plan to remediate the West Lake Landfill. Known as “Excavation Plus” or “Alternative 4,” the plan involved removing radioactively impacted material with a concentration greater than 52.9 picocuries per gram (pCi/g), to a maximum depth of 16 feet. The proposal would remove approximately 67 percent of the radioactivity from the landfill and take 5 years to implement at an estimated cost of $236 million. Potentially responsible parties, including Bridgeton Landfill LLC, Rock Road Industries Inc., Cotter Corporation, and the Department of Energy are liable for the costs of the clean-up. Included in the plan is a proposal to build a cover system that will protect the community of Bridgeton for the long term.
2012
January 01
In 2012, following consultation with the EPA National Remedy Review Board, the EPA asked the potentially responsible parties to gather more data and perform additional evaluations. After conducting an aerial survey of the site and surrounding areas in 2013, the EPA reported that the radioactive waste remained contained within OU-1 and posed no safety risk to outlying areas. The West Lake landfill has drawn further scrutiny because of a nearby subsurface smoldering fire (in OU-2), an event located only 1,000 feet (300 m) away from OU-1.
2008
January 01
After decades of investigation, including multiple studies, public meetings, and public comment periods, the EPA selected a final site cleanup plan. In 2008, the EPA announced that they would contain the contaminated sites by placing a multilayered cover over 40 acres (16 ha) of OU-1. The EPA plan also required institutional controls and monitoring of the site. After receiving additional comments from environmental groups and the general public, the EPA asked the potentially responsible parties to commission a study of alternative cleanup options. The resulting supplemental feasibility study was released in 2011.
1989
October 28
West Lake was proposed to be a Superfund site on October 28, 1989, and the EPA placed the landfill on the National Priorities List, designating it as a Superfund site on August 30, 1990. The EPA has listed four potentially responsible parties: the US Department of Energy; the Cotter Corporation; and Republic Services subsidiaries Bridgeton Landfill and Rock Road Industries.EPA directed those parties to undertake investigations and evaluations consistent with CERCLA (Superfund) guidance.
1973
January 01
The West Lake Landfill site originated in 1939 as a limestone quarry operated by the Westlake Quarry Company. Landfilling at the site began in the 1950. In 1973, after having changed hands (and responsible oversight) several times, B&K Construction Co., a company contracted by Cotter Corporation, dumped a portion of the original stored radioactive material at a nearby storage facility. 8,700 short tons (7,900 tonnes) of leached barium sulfate, the material with the lowest relative radioactivity, was combined with 39,000 short tons (35,000 t) of topsoil to dilute the contaminated material at the landfill. The leached barium sulfate was a byproduct of Mallinckrodt Chemical Works’ uranium enrichment program as a part of the Manhattan Project and later nuclear weapons production, and dumping it there was illegal. Due to the discovery of the radioactive and other contaminants at the site, West Lake was proposed as a Superfund site in October 1989, and was officially listed as such a site in August 1990.