The issue of radioactive contamination in the Hazelwood School District now has full congressional coverage, thanks to U.S. Rep. Cori Bush, D-ºüÀêÊÓƵ, sponsoring legislation to clean up Jana Elementary School in Florissant.
On Tuesday, Bush introduced a bill that serves as a companion to legislation proposed in February by U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Missouri. On Wednesday, Hawley secured unanimous consent from the full Senate.
The Hawley and Bush bills — both dubbed “Justice for Jana†— call for testing all Hazelwood School District property for radiation, as well as helping pay for new construction in districts affected by decades-old nuclear contamination.
In March, the school district announced that the school would be shut down permanently, the result of testing by a private company that showed high levels of radioactivity in the school and around the playground.
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Different reports have examined the issue and, despite “comparable†findings, have differed on whether the results represent a real risk to human health, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has said. On Tuesday, the Corps that repeated its earlier finding that Jana Elementary is radiologically safe, based on testing it performed last fall.
The school sits on the flood plain of Coldwater Creek. That creek was contaminated with radioactive waste from the storage of uranium residue created by the U.S. atomic weapons program in the 1940s.
"The worst part of this is that the federal government has refused to clean this up," Hawley said on the Senate floor. "The Biden Administration has for spent the last eight months pointing their fingers at each other."
“Our government created this waste to construct the most deadly nuclear weapon in history,†Bush said. “They have a responsibility to clean it up and ensure that the safety and well-being of our community is a top priority."