The Environmental Protection Agency said last week it is extending the schedule for proposing a final soil cleanup remedy at the West Lake Landfill Superfund site in Missouri, without offering a new date. The agency, which had originally expected to deliver a final remedy by the end of this year, cited delays in submission of technical documents by the site’s potentially responsible parties (PRPs).
“We have been working very hard to achieve this goal and I know the community was expecting a decision soon. However, given the complexity of this site and potential community impacts, we must ensure that sound science is driving our decision-making,” EPA Region 7 Administrator Mark Hague said in a statement.
Hague added that the agency will continue to require that the PRPs produce “quality work products” that account for the site’s complexity and can “withstand the scrutiny of agency experts.”
West Lake’s PRPs are Laidlaw Waste Systems (now known as Bridgeton Landfill LLC, a subsidiary of West Lake owner Republic Services), Rock Road Industries Inc., Cotter Corp., and the Department of Energy. According to EPA spokesman Ben Washburn, the PRPs collectively submit technical documents to the agency. Republic Services spokesman Richard Callow wrote in an email Friday that the company will work with the EPA on monitoring, data gathering, testing, and analysis, as dictated by the Superfund process.
West Lake, which contains waste from the former uranium production facility at Mallinckrodt Chemical Works in St. Louis, is adjacent to the Bridgeton Landfill, where an underground fire has been burning since 2010. Missouri residents, lawmakers, and environmentalists have long criticized the EPA’s 25-year cleanup effort at the site, with many calling for Congress to take the agency off the job and replace it with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program (FUSRAP).
The EPA also announced last week that FUSRAP has agreed to provide analysis for the agency’s review of technical documents as it works to deliver a final remedy decision.
“We are grateful to the Corps’ leadership and their experts for partnering with us on this critical decision,” Hague said in the statement.
The news comes after a St. Louis-area couple filed a lawsuit against Republic Services, and other companies, claiming that contamination from West Lake had been recorded in their home. The lawsuit alleges that the Dailey property is contaminated with material from high levels of uranium decay, including thorium, lead, and radon. The EPA has since requested soil and dust sampling data from the Daileys’ attorneys, as well as any similar data for nearby residences, businesses, and other locations.
“EPA takes the concerns of the community seriously,” Hague said in the statement. “As with any decision or actions we take, we will rely on scientifically sound data to guide our efforts. We will consider the collective data when outlining our next steps.”
The EPA is developing a residential sampling plan beginning with data from the Daileys, according to the announcement. If needed, the agency will extend the investigation to other residences.
“The agency is working as quickly as possible to address community concerns, and will keep the lines of communication open with the community,” the announcement said.
