FLORISSANT — In the wake of new remediation work being done here on the west bank of Coldwater Creek near Jana Elementary School, residents reiterated their wish for broader testing of radioactive contaminants in their neighborhoods.
They want the government to guarantee that their yards are safe for play and to plant vegetables. They want to know that the air they breathe isn’t slowly making them sick from Manhattan Project waste that somehow got into their homes.
Last week, in response to questions from the Post-Dispatch, U.S. Sens. Josh Hawley and Eric Schmitt, both Republicans, and U.S. Rep. Cori Bush, a Democrat, all agreed with those residents — and each other.
“Senator Hawley absolutely supports this additional testing,†Abigail Jackson, a Hawley spokeswoman, said by email. “He continues to push federal agencies to expand their current efforts.â€
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Christopher Nuelle, spokesman for Schmitt, said “this issue is near and dear†to Schmitt’s heart because he was raised in Bridgeton.
“For too long, agencies in Washington have treated this issue as a hot potato, all while residents and families were impacted by this radioactive waste,†Nuelle said. “Senator Schmitt believes the Army Corps of Engineers needs to do everything in their power to reassure residents and rebuild trust among those living in areas potentially affected by radioactive waste. This may mean expanded and continued testing by the Army Corps of Engineers, which Senator Schmitt would fully support.â€
Uranium ore was processed north of downtown ºüÀêÊÓƵ for the early development of the nation’s atomic weapons. Waste from the effort was stored north of the airport and a nearby industrial area on Latty Avenue, both by Coldwater Creek. From there, the creek winds 14 miles through several North County communities before reaching the Missouri River.
The Army Corps of Engineers is mainly testing and remediating that stretch of the creek within the 10-year floodplain. Regulatory goals were established in 2005 by the so-called Record of Decision, an extensive document that guides the costly cleanup.
Bush, whose congressional district extents from north ºüÀêÊÓƵ to north ºüÀêÊÓƵ County, said in a statement that there should be expanded testing and that the federal government is responsible for “not only cleaning up this mess but for compensating anyone who has been impacted.â€
“My office is committed to expanding testing throughout the ºüÀêÊÓƵ area, and I have directly requested that the Department of Energy, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and the EPA amend the Record of Decision to mandate that all property within the 100-year flood plain be tested,†she said.
No doubt, it will be a challenge to do so. In 2022, Bush filed the Coldwater Creek Signage Act and has been trying to work with the EPA and the Corps to put signs up along the creek to warn the community of possible harms. No signs have gone up yet. Language for the signs and funding haven’t been finalized.
In late July, Hawley co-sponsored legislation with Schmitt and U.S. Sens. Ben Ray Luján, D-N.M., and Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, that would provide financial compensation 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.
Hawley has also publicly asked officials to improve nuclear contamination cleanup efforts at the Weldon Spring site in St. Charles County and other parts of the ºüÀêÊÓƵ region.
U.S. Reps. Ann Wagner and Blaine Luetkemeyer, both Republicans whose districts touch impacted areas, told the Post-Dispatch that they would support Hawley’s measure in the House but didn’t explicitly commit to broader testing that residents are calling for.
“Managing consequences related to the Manhattan Project is absolutely the federal government’s responsibility,†Luetkemeyer said in a prepared statement. “The National Defense Authorization Act, which passed the Senate in July, contains language addressing these issues. I certainly support maintaining that language in the final bill.â€
Arthur Bryant, spokesman for Wagner, said by email that the congresswoman “is working to get answers†from the Department of Energy about the remediation efforts at the Weldon Spring site.
“She supports Senator Hawley’s legislative efforts to expand eligibility within the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act and encourages Second District residents who have concerns about the Weldon Spring site to contact her office,†Bryant said.
Contamination may have spread
Many residents have concerns about areas that weren’t known storage sites, rather places where contamination may have spread. Places like Coldwater Creek tributaries that they say have backed up and flooded yards and low-lying areas for generations. An extensive amount of top soil was also taken out of the Coldwater Creek bottomlands to level off and build new subdivisions in North County and other areas.
“That contamination could have been easily moved from the creek to somebody’s front yard and across the street,†Mark Behlmann, whose family built about 1,000 homes in North County, said in a 2021 interview.
There was also a sod farm along the creek at what is now Schaefer Bend County Park, near Old Halls Ferry Road.
Federal officials haven’t committed to broader cleanup. Earlier this month, at a hearing on Capitol Hill about remediating nuclear waste in the ºüÀêÊÓƵ region, David M. Turk, deputy director of the Department of Energy, told Hawley that the agency merely has a supportive role in the matter with the Army Corp of Engineers Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program, or FUSRAP.
“We are happy to not only play that supporting role but to try to push and work with our interagency partners to be responsive, certainly to listen to the concerns that you have expressed, the concerns of the community,†Turk said. “It’s a horrific situation. ... There is an awful lot that we need to do, not just on the science but also on the human element as well.â€
Asked on Friday about expanding testing, a spokeswoman for the Department of Energy referred the Post-Dispatch to the FUSRAP program in ºüÀêÊÓƵ. The Environmental Protection Agency said through a spokesman that the EPA has overseen the completion of fieldwork to identify the “nature and extent†of radioactive contamination within the West Lake Landfill site, findings that were presented at a public meeting in Bridgeton in May.
“EPA is now focused on overseeing work by the Potentially Responsible Parties to complete the remedial design of the remedy selected in the 2018 Record of Decision Amendment,†EPA spokesman Benjamin Washburn said by email. As for Coldwater Creek and other North County sites, Washburn referred questions to the Corps as the lead agency overseeing cleanup and contaminated areas.
The Corps, which is focusing its testing within the 10-year floodplain, said they will widen sampling if test results lead beyond that narrow scope — until the trail goes cold. The approved project took years to develop and doesn’t include trying to track down fill dirt.
Jeremy Idleman, a spokesman for the FUSRAP program in ºüÀêÊÓƵ, said Friday that focusing resources on the 10-year floodplain makes “responsible use of taxpayer funds by targeting the areas at greatest risk.â€
FUSRAP has a $30 million annual budget to work in the Coldwater Creek area.
“We can’t randomly go to people’s backyards and test,†Idleman said. “It’s very time-consuming, and it’s very expensive and we need to be responsible stewards.â€