Residents look for firm start date for West Lake Landfill cleanup at EPA meeting

ST. LOUIS, Mo. (KMOV) - North St. Louis County residents are still waiting for West Lake Landfill to be cleaned of radioactive waste after attending an Environmental Protection Agency meeting with no firm date in place.

The EPA said remediation of West Lake Landfill will start sometime next year. People who attended the EPA’s meeting Tuesday in Bridgeton want an official start date and answers to radioactive samples collected within the last few months.

Radioactive waste from processing uranium during World War II was illegally dumped in the landfill in the 1970′s.

This year, the EPA announced 452 out of 998 recent soil samples at West Lake Landfill tested positive for radioactive material.

“So, we are currently in the remedial design phase and will be having a separate meeting on May 9 to go over some technical details of some sampling and other documents that we’ve received,” said Jessica Evans, a community involvement coordinator with the EPA.

The EPA held Tuesday’s meeting to get feedback on the best ways to communicate updates to the public.

“They were promised a cleanup in 2018. Where is it?” said Dawn Chapman, cofounder of Just Moms STL, a non-profit group formed to unite and organize against radioactive waste in the St. Louis area.

“They want them [EPA] to fix the site,” Chapman said. “Some people are uncomfortable going directly to them. I think that they’re 10 years too late--maybe even 32 years too late on input.”

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