The Environmental Protection Agency said Friday the resignation of controversy-plagued Administrator Scott Pruitt would not change its approach for cleanup of the radioactively contaminated West Lake Landfill in Missouri.
Pruitt submitted his resignation Thursday to President Donald Trump following a 17-month term in office in which he was battered by a series of reports about his spending habits, use of agency personnel, and attempts to secure high-paying employment for his wife, among other issues.
In February, Pruitt announced partial excavation as the EPA’s preferred option for removing radioactive soil from West Lake, a section of an EPA Superfund site. The project is forecast to cost $236 million over five years.
“EPA has completed an extended public comment period and has been reviewing those comments as part of the CERCLA process,” an agency spokesperson said by email Friday. “EPA is now developing the final Record of Decision amendment and Response to Comments, which will be released when complete. There are no planned schedule changes.”
The spokesperson said there was nothing else to report regarding the schedule for completion of the administrative process.
The EPA took comments on its planned approach through April 23, with a public meeting held March 6 in Bridgeton, Mo. The amendment will update a 2008 record of decision on West Lake – which called for leaving the contaminated material under a new cover – to reflect the new planned cleanup approach.
West Lake in 1973 received roughly 8,700 tons of leached barium sulfate left from development of the atomic bomb in World War II, which was combined with contaminated soil to cover refuse at the landfill. The EPA intends to remove all “radiologically impacted material” down to 16 feet below surface that has a radiation level greater than 52.9 picocuries per gram. An engineered cover would then be built over the impacted area.
