Deputy Secretary of Energy David Turk told Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) Thursday during a hearing he is unsure if the Department of Energy can address radiological contamination around a St. Louis area school, where the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers appears to have jurisdiction.
“We’ve had conversations including with the Army Corps … and I don’t particularly understand where the Army Corps is coming from,” Turk said.
“Neither do I,” Hawley said during a Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing.
“The Army Corps is the principal agency and before DOE can step in, it needs to know “what is our particular jurisdictional hook,” Turk said.
Hawley expressed growing impatience with federal agency “conversations” and said he wants the appropriate feds to gather in a room and settle on a solution.
The Missouri lawmaker, during his first hearing as a member of the Energy and Natural Resources panel, said he and the Hazelwood School District have asked the Army Corps to promptly do more testing and fast-track cleanup around Jana Elementary School, which remains closed.
“They have refused,” Hawley said of the Corps, even though radioactive material was found 600 feet from the school, Hawley said.
The senator was referring to a report done privately by Boston Chemical Data and authored by civil engineer Marco Kaltofen and geologist Brian Moore. The study found higher than expected levels of radio and thorium after studying dust from building ventilation systems, classroom surfaces as well as soil from the playground and nearby Coldwater creek.
The apparent higher than expected levels of the isotopes came to light in an October article in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
The Army Corp has said the Boston Chemical study did not follow its methodologies and specifications for such research. Kaltofen has said his practices, while differing from the Corps’, are reliable.
The St. Louis District of the Army Corps said in a statement released Friday through a spokesperson that it took hundreds of samples from soil and and around structures at the Jana School and concluded that “from a radiological standpoint the school is safe.” The Corps is working on its final reports from the November sampling. “We will continue to prioritize the health and well-being of the community.”
Committee Chair Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) stepped in toward the end of Hawley’s five-minute questioning of Turk.
“He [Turk] doesn’t have the authority right now,” Manchin said of the case, which the Boston Chemical report says involves elements present near the Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program (FUSRAP) Coldwater Creek Superfund site near the St. Louis airport. FUSRAP was not mentioned directly, although Hawley did say the contamination was spawned by Manhattan Project work.
The Army Corps has said contamination of what it calls the Northern St. Louis County sites, including Coldwater Creek and the St. Louis Airport Site, stem from Atomic Energy Commission work to support national defense in the 1940s and 1950s. Cleanup under the Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program is governed by a 2005 record of decision. The principal contaminants of concern are radionuclides associated with the residues of ore processing, such as radium, thorium, and uranium, according to the document.
“Years ago, another senator transferred that authority to the Corps,” and that’s why it’s so confusing, Manchin added. Ultimately, direction on the Missouri school situation might have to come from Congress, Manchin said.
According to a federal fact sheet, Congress turned over FUSRAP cleanup responsibility to the Army Corps from DOE in 1997. Various proposals have been floated over the years to move FUSRAP back to DOE, most recently in 2021 by President Joe Biden’s administration.
Hawley said it appears DOE and the Corps have overlapping jurisdiction.
“[W]hat I’m trying to do is light a fire,” Hawley said, adding that he still wants DOE to reply to letters sent by his office and the school system.
The committee convened the hearing to examine DOE’s handling of the Jobs Act. Hawley posted a press release on his exchange with the DOE boss, which includes a video clip.