JEFFERSON CITY — Missouri’s attorney general is calling on Congress to question federal officials on the U.S. government’s role in contaminating the ºüÀêÊÓƵ area with radioactive waste and what agencies are doing to repair the damage.
Attorney General Andrew Bailey on Tuesday wrote to U.S. Rep. Cathy McMorris Rogers, a Washington state Republican and chairwoman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, asking that she convene a hearing with members of the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Energy.
Bailey said that development of the atomic bomb led to radioactive contamination in ºüÀêÊÓƵ. He said ºüÀêÊÓƵans were still “dealing with the aftermath,†including higher cancer rates among individuals who lived near or played in Coldwater Creek in north ºüÀêÊÓƵ County, which was polluted by waste once stored at sites near the airport and also in Hazelwood.
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The federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry in 2018 found that exposure to radioactive contaminants that polluted the creek could raise the risks of bone cancer, lung cancer, leukemia, among other cancers, the Post-Dispatch reported in a news story that is referenced in Bailey’s letter.
Bailey also mentioned the closing last year of Jana Elementary School in Florissant over radioactive contamination concerns as well as the smoldering Bridgeton Landfill, which adjoins West Lake Landfill, where radioactive waste is buried.
“It’s time for the federal government to take responsibility,†Bailey wrote.
Bailey also references an April 1965 letter from ºüÀêÊÓƵ-based Mallinckrodt Chemical Works to the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission that says Mallinckrodt received “potentially dangerous material†in the fall of 1964 for testing, and that the company shipped the material out on April 29, 1965.
Bailey urged the congresswoman to press the Department of Energy for more information on the shipment. He said the Department of Energy had provided no insight into the type of material, how it was used, and what protective measures were taken.
The Department of Energy did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Advocates had urged Bailey, a Republican, to sue the federal Department of Energy, or “at least bring them to task,†Dawn Chapman, a founder of Just Moms STL, said in July.
Her comments followed reporting that analyzed government documents detailing the federal government’s role in decades-old radioactive contamination from the country’s early nuclear weapons program here.
State Rep. Tricia Byrnes, R-Wentzville, has called on Gov. Mike Parson, who appointed Bailey attorney general, to hold a roundtable forum on the contamination.
Bailey in his letter also said he supported U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley’s legislation to expand an existing nuclear radiation exposure program to people in ºüÀêÊÓƵ who meet certain criteria.
Hawley’s measure would provide reimbursement to people with a medical condition linked to nuclear radiation exposure and who were “physically present in an affected area†— defined by 20 ZIP codes — for at least two years after Jan. 1, 1949.
Affected ZIP code areas, which cover most of north ºüÀêÊÓƵ County, the north riverfront area of ºüÀêÊÓƵ and a large swath of St. Charles County are 63031, 63033, 63034, 63042, 63045, 63074, 63114, 63135, 63138, 63044, 63140, 63145, 63147, 63102, 63304, 63134, 63043, 63341, 63368 and 63367.