U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley is stepping on the gas to gain compensation for people exposed to radioactive waste in the ºüÀêÊÓƵ area.
This week, Hawley has been front and center in Washington to talk about his efforts to get local sites included in federal laws.
“We seem to have unlimited sums of money to pay defense contractors and give to foreign countries,â€Â Hawley  this week. “Can we not make whole the people of this nation who have been poisoned by their own government?â€Â
To boost Hawley’s focus on the issue, the activist group Just Moms STL, including co-founders Dawn Chapman and Karen Nickel, went to Washington to speak with lawmakers.
Also along were state Rep. Tricia Byrnes, R-Wentzville, and Christen Commuso of the Missouri Coalition for the Environment.
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At issue is the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA), which compensates those exposed to radiation from atomic testing or uranium mining.
The law covers people who were residents of Utah, Nevada and Arizona at the time of nuclear testing and uranium mining during World War II. But it does not cover New Mexico, site of the 1945 Trinity atomic bomb test, or Missouri.
In ºüÀêÊÓƵ, Mallinckrodt Chemical Works processed uranium ore at its downtown plant under contract to the Manhattan Project, which developed the atomic bomb.
Some of Mallinckrodt’s waste was stored at sites near the airport in North County where it eventually contaminated areas along the Coldwater Creek watershed; some of that waste was later taken to and buried at West Lake Landfill in Bridgeton.
In Weldon Spring, some people who developed cancers blamed exposure to Mallinckrodt’s uranium processing there from 1957 to 1966.
In July, the U.S. Senate approved Hawley and U.S. Sen. Ben Ray Luján’s amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act, adding sites in Missouri, New Mexico, Idaho, Montana, Guam and Colorado to RECA. The amendment also extended the act for 19 years.Â
The law allows residents of eligible areas to apply for compensation if their medical condition has been directly linked to nuclear radiation exposure.Â
The Senate amendment was not included in the U.S. House’s version of the legislation, even though U.S. Rep. Cori Bush, D-ºüÀêÊÓƵ, has been vocal about needing to compensate local victims.
Hawley said that if the expanded sites are not included in the final legislation, it “would be a huge mistake ... and also frankly a great moral failure.â€
He’s threatened to vote against the defense bill if the amendment isn’t included.