FLORISSANT — Concerned north ºüÀêÊÓƵ County residents gathered Thursday night at the Florissant Municipal Courts to ask questions at a public hearing about local radioactive contamination issues and related public health risks — at Florissant’s Jana Elementary School and beyond.
But, armed with a recent report about the site of the school shuttered thanks to radiation concerns fueled by an independent study last year, officials from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers emphasized to a crowd of a few dozen people that the site is safe for use, with the property’s levels of radiation matching those that naturally occur.
“There’s no other work needing to be done because there is no contamination on the site,†said Phil Moser, a program manager from the Corps’ ºüÀêÊÓƵ District. “If you don’t find it, then it’s not there.â€
Moreover, the Corps said its results “determined that there were there were no radiological risks to the students or staff at the school.â€
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The school property sits alongside Coldwater Creek — a longtime conduit for radioactive contamination in north ºüÀêÊÓƵ County, and, more recently, a target of marathon cleanup efforts that extend beyond Jana’s parcel of land.
Radioactivity issues surrounding the creek and other nearby places, like West Lake Landfill, trace back to the 1940s and ’50s, when Mallinckrodt Chemical processed uranium in ºüÀêÊÓƵ for use in the Manhattan Project and the nation’s earliest nuclear weapons. Resulting radioactive waste was eventually stored at an airport site next to Coldwater Creek, and then later moved to another site along the creek, on Latty Avenue.
Rain washed soil from the sites into and along the creek, where it was deposited downstream, over time.
The Corps, however, says that such contamination near Jana has remained confined to the creek bank on the school’s property, and does not extend elsewhere on the grounds, after sampling throughout and around the school building.
The agency said there are three specific places along the creek bank where that material is buried in the soil — with one spot as small as four cubic yards, and the biggest covering more than 6,000 cubic yards. The Corps is working to remove contaminants in those places.
But elsewhere on the property, the Corps says that there were no traces of radioactivity linked to those Manhattan Project activities, or that exceeded naturally occurring background levels. Its analysis therefore concluded that the facility is safe for any use, based on examining hundreds of survey results and swipe measurements.
The Corps’ latest report compared risk levels at the school to a variety of ordinary and everyday threats — like car crashes, choking on food, or even living in Colorado — to illustrate its relative level of safety. For example, it said that risks from radioactivity are eight times greater in Colorado than they are at Jana — thanks partly to the greater exposure to cosmic radiation that occurs at higher elevations, where the shield from the atmosphere is thinner.
Moser emphasized that the Corps’ analysis took a reproducible and verifiable approach, and that the findings were reviewed for accuracy by experts at state and federal agencies, as well as different universities.
“Right now that school building could be used for anything,†he said.
But members of the public remain concerned and skeptical of the Corps’ declaration that the school is safe.
Ashley Bernaugh, the president of Jana's PTA organization, takes issue with some of the assumptions that have guided the Corps’ assessment of health risks. For instance, she said the latest study based its determination of risk on exposure to the site’s levels of radioactivity for eight hours per day. But students can spend longer intervals at the site, thanks to after-school activities, and then also live in the immediate surroundings.
“We don’t ever leave,†said Bernaugh, adding that she has other long-term exposure concerns for teachers and staff members who have worked at the school for decades. “These models are very flawed.â€
Despite the Corps’ findings, the Hazelwood School District’s stance remains unchanged, regarding Jana’s future.
“Nothing is changing at this point,†said Jordyn Elston, the district’s director of communications. “There is no expectation that Jana will reopen.â€
Editor's note: This story was updated on June 9, at 9:50 a.m.