FLORISSANT — Parents waiting to pick up their children here Monday at Jana Elementary expressed a range of emotions in the wake of a new study that found elevated levels of radioactive contamination at the school.
One wanted the Hazelwood School District to be more transparent about the matter. Another said classes should be virtual. Scott Rose suggested going further.
“The school should be shut down until they know more,†said Rose, 46, waiting for his son, a second grader. “I am looking to put him in a different school because I don’t want him here. It’s not safe.â€
But going private would be a hardship. Rose mows lawns for a living. His wife is a receptionist. For now, he said, he wrote an email to Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., to help the situation.
“I pretty much said can you help us save our kids,†Rose said.
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Heightened concern started last week, when a report from an ongoing lawsuit was publicized, claiming radioactive waste was found in the area up to 22 times the expected level.
Samples taken Aug. 15 from Jana Elementary’s library, kitchen, HVAC system, classrooms, fields and playgrounds were found “far in excess of the natural background†of radioactive isotope lead-210, polonium, radium and other toxins, according to a Boston Chemical Data Corp. report.
The school, 405 Jana Drive in Florissant, sits in the flood plain of Coldwater Creek, which was contaminated by waste from the development of atomic weapons. Mallinckrodt Chemical Co. processed massive amounts of uranium ore on the Mississippi riverfront, north of downtown ºüÀêÊÓƵ, from 1942 to 1957.
Tons of byproduct with residual radioactive material were shipped to a location on the northern border of the airport, next to Coldwater Creek, to be stored. It was later trucked about a mile away, to an industrial area in the 9200 block of Latty Avenue, which also borders Coldwater Creek. Some of the material was taken to Canon City, Colorado. Some was buried at West Lake Landfill in Bridgeton. Some of it washed away and settled after flooding.
The main storage sites along Coldwater Creek, and surrounding areas, ended up being heavily contaminated. Those sources of contamination have mainly been remediated. Now, after a lot of concern from residents, the ongoing focus of the Army Corps of Engineers has been testing so the creek can finally be cleaned up. Officials have said that nearly all the contamination is bound between the banks of the creek, a few feet down, but that there are exceptions.
Before emptying in the Missouri River, the creek travels through Hazelwood, Florissant, Black Jack, unincorporated ºüÀêÊÓƵ County and a sliver of Berkeley. An in-depth Post-Dispatch report in December signaled that many new north ºüÀêÊÓƵ County residents are unfamiliar with the saga. There have been repeated calls for better signage to warn the public.
Call for open meeting
On Monday, the leader of the Jana Elementary’s parent-teacher association, called on the Hazelwood School District to discuss in open session the contents of the recent report findings. The next board meeting is 6:30 p.m. Tuesday.
“We feel that parents and teachers would benefit from hearing the live discussion of that report,†Ashley Bernaugh, president of the association, told the Post-Dispatch.
Hazelwood School Board President Betsy Rachel previously said they would discuss the report in a closed session yet expected “a lot of comments†during the public portion of the meeting.
Jordyn Elston, a spokeswoman for the district, refused to comment on the matter Monday and referred to a district statement from Friday:
“The Hazelwood School District is aware of the report regarding radioactive contamination at Jana Elementary. Safety is always our top priority, and we are actively discussing the implications of the findings. The Board of Education will be consulting with attorneys and experts in this area of testing to determine next steps.â€
In July, Bernaugh and other parents approached the school board to ask for more testing and were refused, she said. But before school resumed in August, families received a letter that another study would be conducted.
Plaintiffs’ expert
The Boston Chemical report stems from one of the many lawsuits filed against Mallinckrodt and other companies that produced, stored and disposed of the radioactive waste.
According to filings in the federal case, Corps documents, obtained by the Missouri Coalition for the Environment, revealed “significant radiation contamination in the vicinity of Jana Elementary School.†But they also showed that the “Corps did not collect samples within 300 feet of the school nor from the interior of the school.â€
On Aug. 1, attorneys for the plaintiffs asked a federal judge to allow them access to the school grounds to sample for radioactive contamination. They argued, in part, the recent flash flooding caused by the heavy rains that pummeled the region on July 26 likely caused contamination to spread. School was set to open Aug. 22.
The Corps’ findings were shared with the Hazelwood School District superintendent early this year, but parents weren’t informed, according to the plaintiffs’ filings. The Corps, the plaintiffs say, “downplayed the contamination ... in what could be construed as an attempt to provide the Superintendent with an excuse not to inform the parents.â€
“They should have gone all the way up the hill to the school and they didn’t so we carried it forward and did the testing and paid for it,†Kevin Thompson, an attorney in West Virginia, said by telephone Monday. “The Army Corps of Engineers has been misleading.â€
Thompson said he and other plaintiff attorneys don’t dispute the test numbers that the Army Corps of Engineers came up with.
“What we dispute is what they mean, and how one should interpret them,†Thompson said.
Corps pushes back
In an interview Monday, Phillip Moser, program manager of the Corps’ Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program in ºüÀêÊÓƵ, said he was “appalled†by the Boston Chemical report.
“It’s just not consistent with the way we are supposed to do business,†Moser said, adding that the report would need a full evaluation that could take a lot of time. “I already have questions about the conclusions.â€
Moser stood by the Corps’ findings in the area. While the U.S. Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry that indoor dust be tested in north ºüÀêÊÓƵ County, Moser reiterated that the Corps’ mission is to test Coldwater Creek within the 10-year flood plain. He said the Corps will go beyond that general scope if sampling leads to hot spots, but that wasn’t the case near Jana Elementary.
Moser said he’d be fine sending one of his own children to Jana Elementary.
“I trust our evaluations,†he said.
But it’s a large area with a lot of moving pieces.
While the Corps discourages digging along Coldwater Creek, Jana Elementary had an end-of-the-school celebration last year near an area being unearthed by ºüÀêÊÓƵ Metropolitan Sewer District, according to records provided by the school’s parent-teacher association.
“Parents shouldn’t have to make a decision between education and safety,†Bernaugh said.
Updated at 7:06 p.m.