November 21, 2013
Corps of Engineers Program Needed for Nuclear Weapons Wastes
St. Louis, MO – Robert Alvarez, senior advisor in the Department of Energy under President Clinton, released a report on how the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has not properly evaluated the risks of the West Lake Landfill and why the Army Corps of Engineers is best suited to address the issue moving forward.
“This is not your ordinary landfill,” said Robert Alvarez. “Leaving radioactive wastes at West Lake has turned it into a de facto nuclear weapons wastes dump, which would violate all modern day guidelines for proper disposal of radioactive wastes.”
The Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program (FUSRAP) under the Corps of Engineers was specifically designed to remediate radioactive wastes related to the United States nuclear weapons program. The radioactive wastes at the West Lake Landfill were a product of nuclear weapons work by Mallinckrodt Chemical Works in downtown St. Louis, beginning in 1942. The Corps is remediating every site in the City of St. Louis and St. Louis County, except the West Lake Landfill.
“It is reasonable that people want the federal program specifically designed to address the legacy of nuclear weapons radioactive wastes be put in charge of the nuclear weapons radioactive wastes at the West Lake Landfill,” said Ed Smith of the Missouri Coalition for the Environment. “The time is now for our federally elected officials to put the Corps of Engineers in charge of West Lake.”
Read the latest on West Lake Landfill from nuclear weapons waste expert, Robert Alverez.
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