The Environmental Protection Agency has yet to finalize a schedule for submitting the final soil cleanup remedy at the West Lake Landfill Superfund site in Missouri. The agency had initially planned to submit a final cleanup remedy by the end of 2016.
The EPA extended the schedule in December without offering a new date. 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 burned since 2010. Missouri residents and lawmakers have long criticized the EPA’s 25-year cleanup effort at the site, with many calling for Congress to replace the agency with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program (FUSRAP).
EPA spokesman Ben Washburn said by email this week that the agency has partnered with the Army Corps of Engineers in reviewing technical documents from West Lake’s potentially responsible parties (PRPs) related to the final remedy. The EPA has yet to receive feedback from the Corps on those technical documents.
Washburn said the agency has received draft submissions of the Remedial Investigation Addendum and Final Feasibility Study from the PRPs. The Remedial Investigation Addendum contains data on the nature and extent of radiologically impacted material at the site, contaminant fate, and transport baseline risk assessment. The Final Feasibility Study contains remedial alternatives to address the contamination. 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.
“EPA, in consultation with state and federal partners, is currently reviewing these documents and will issue a comment letter for each document to the PRPs when those reviews are complete,” Washburn said.
