Source: http://www.stltoday.com, January 3, 2015
By: Jacob Barker
Except for an underground fire in an adjacent landfill, little has changed in the four decades since regulators realized radioactive waste was buried in a north St. Louis County dump.
For more than 20 years, it’s been up to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to figure out what to do with the contaminated West Lake Landfill in Bridgeton, and it’s running out of goodwill. The glacial progress toward resolution has led to a growing frustration among nearby residents and area leaders who say the fire makes the need for action more urgent than ever.
That frustration boiled over at an October meeting between residents and officials from the EPA’s Kansas City-area office. Some attendees shoved chairs and stormed out of the auditorium where the agency holds monthly meetings with concerned citizens. Others shouted down EPA officials, yelling “Do something!” and “How long does it take?”
It’s not just residents who are losing patience with the agency.
Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster, who sued landfill owner Republic Services in March 2013, said there’s a perception that the EPA is “kicking the can down the road.” They need to act quickly if they want to prove that presumption incorrect, Koster said.
“We tried to give the EPA the benefit of the doubt for a period of time but now share the frustration of the residents in North County that the federal government is not moving with any strength on this issue,” Koster said in a phone interview last week. “It’s time for action, and we’ve had two years of dialogue that has not moved any bulldozers.”
Some residents and activists point to a late November report from the Missouri Department of Natural Resources to illustrate the difference between state regulators and the EPA. The DNR, a plaintiff in Koster’s lawsuit, deferred to the attorney general’s office for comment.
The DNR report says landfill temperatures are rising in areas closer to the radioactive waste. It raises concerns about the possibility of more intense fires in the north quarry of Bridgeton Landfill, the area closest to West Lake, referring to fires there during the 1990s. (There was little publicity or outcry then.)
Plus, the report says radioactive waste could be more widespread than initially thought and calls for more thorough testing to determine its full extent and composition.
The EPA has said the fire isn’t moving toward West Lake, and it has also said there’s little risk of spreading radioactive waste through the air. After a recent groundwater report that found higher levels of radium under the landfill, the EPA emphasized that it couldn’t prove the contamination came from West Lake’s radioactive waste.

St. Louis County Councilman Sam Page pointed to the DNR report as an example of a state agency recognizing residents’ concerns, in contrast to an EPA that “appear(s) to not be fully engaged.” He said pressure is building for action.
“We need to recognize that the momentum on this issue is shifting,” said Page, a Democrat whose district includes Bridgeton.
Robert Criss, a professor in the Washington University Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, has followed the issue for years. He agrees that state and federal regulators appear to view the situation differently.
“EPA has always downplayed the risk, that’s kind of chronic with them,” Criss said. “They’ve lost their credibility, that’s what’s propelling this politically. DNR is finally asking, it appears, for better information. … (Residents’) concerns are legitimate until we have the information we need. My claim all along is this problem is vastly understudied.”
Doug Clemens, who chairs the West Lake Community Advisory Group and is critical of the EPA’s response, said it appears the agency’s leadership in Region 7, which oversees Missouri, is trying to pass the buck.
“I think they see 2016, and if they stall long enough, it will be someone else in charge of Region 7,” he said.
The DNR report calls for a quicker start to construction of a firebreak that was announced in 2013 but is waiting on further design work and EPA approval. An August report from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which is assisting with the project, indicated it could be more than another year until construction begins.
The barrier proposal was originally submitted to Koster’s office as part of a legal agreement between the state and Republic Services. Republic later committed to building the barrier earlier than required, but the EPA must approve plans, because the barrier would mostly go through West Lake.
“For two years the Environmental Protection Agency has talked about a wall, but we have seen nothing but dialogue for the last two years,” Koster said. “We are looking for them to come forward with something more than words.”
EPA PLEDGES ACTION
Some sort of action could be nearing, though it may not be soon enough to satisfy the coalition of groups most vocal about the landfills.
EPA Region 7 director Karl Brooks said construction plans are beginning on a barrier to separate the burning landfill from the West Lake waste. And within two years, he hopes to release a proposal for containment or removal of the West Lake waste, before a new presidential administration leads to turnover in the agency’s highest ranks.
“I told the congressional delegation staff when we met with them that by the time this administration is over and by the time my time, my term ends … we will work extremely hard to have a remedy selected and presented to the public,” Brooks said in a phone interview last month. “I am committed to getting our part of that done so the public has a chance to look at that proposed remedy before January 2017.”
Some of those most involved, though, are already looking elsewhere for answers.
“The discrepancy between DNR and the EPA is widening,” Clemens said. “Our federally elected officials are going to make the change here.”
The area’s congressional representatives can put pressure on the federal agency to move, which they have done before by meeting with top agency officials and issuing publicized statements. Beyond that, the County Council can also use its bully pulpit to push the EPA toward a decision, said state Rep. Bill Otto, D-Maryland Heights.
“EPA can fix this tomorrow, they can absolutely fix this tomorrow, and they don’t,” said Otto, whose district includes the landfill. “The push has to come from the federally elected officials. It has to come from them to the EPA. That’s the only way to do it. … I’m hoping (St. Louis County) can take more of a lead on this. It has to be with federal officials, and I think the county will be a good source to continue that pressure.”
Brooks, at the EPA, said he understands the frustration over how long it has taken to choose a remedy for West Lake.
“The time it has taken to do that has been a legitimate source of frustration, I want to emphasize that,” Brooks said. “It’s a complex problem, but it doesn’t mean we have to take forever to do that.”
But he added that the agency has fulfilled its mission to protect public health and the environment.
“Frustration is one thing, loss of confidence is another,” Brooks said. “I think the work that we’ve done merits public confidence.”
In 2008, the agency proposed capping West Lake to prevent the spread of radioactive waste, but outcry from residents caused the agency to withdraw its proposal and reconsider. The final decision will either include capping or encapsulating the waste in place or removing it, a project that will cost an estimated $400 million — 10 times more than leaving the waste in place.
Exelon Corp., the Chicago energy and utility giant that shares liability for the site with current owner Republic Services, has told its investors the possibility of the EPA calling for complete removal is “remote.”
In the last couple of years, Republic has taken steps to control the worst of the odors and hazardous substances emitted from the burning Bridgeton Landfill. It built a special liquid waste treatment plant and capped much of the site with a liner meant to contain odors after Koster sued.
Still, Koster’s office has stepped up pressure on the company.
In October, it filed an amended petition that a Koster spokesman said “significantly expanded” its claims against Republic Services. The lawsuit now asks for punitive damages, and it also says the fire could spread radioactive waste that is in the northern quarry of the Bridgeton Landfill. A trial date has been set for March 2016.
“There has not been as much progress as we want to see,” Koster said. “We do perceive the situation is ongoing, and we have yet to see the company offer us a solution that will bring this to finality.”
A representative for Republic Services declined to comment.
ACTIVE DANGER OR EFFECTIVE MANAGEMENT?
Republic Services maintains the fire and landfill are both at a “managed state,” and that the waste as it is presents no danger to public health. And while the EPA does say the fire could spread radioactive material through groundwater or release radon gas into the air, Brooks said the state’s orders and Republic’s actions have been “effective” in keeping the fire at bay.
Based on the fire’s behavior, the EPA has sufficient time to build a barrier separating West Lake from the Bridgeton Landfill, he said.
“The isolation system would serve the public interest, and it would also serve our interest because it would give us sufficient space to select a remedy,” Brooks said.
But the DNR’s consultant, Todd Thalhamer, and Koster’s lawsuit both suggest the fire is not completely under control.
Some have latched on to the difference. Area activist Dawn Chapman urged the County Council last month to “get on board and fight with the state of Missouri.” Her testimony came before a resolution passed by the council that referred to a “growing consensus” that West Lake Landfill “presents an active danger” to the area.
Brooks, however, said there’s little the EPA and the state aren’t on the same page about. The agency agrees with the DNR’s calls for more temperature monitoring wells and a more comprehensive study of the radioactive material, he said.
“This agency knows that to support a better remedy choice and to make a good decision about an isolation system, we need to know more than we know at the present time about the (radiologically impacted material),” Brooks said.
As for the different views on the fire’s movement, Brooks deferred to the DNR. “The data is subject to different engineers and different scientists drawing different conclusions,” he said. “Thalhamer’s conclusions, they’re really for the state to comment on.”
Otto, the state representative, said he would prefer seeing the waste removed altogether, as many of his most vocal constituents would. But the frustration many have with the EPA boils down to the appearance of inaction.
“Honestly, the public is just tired of nobody doing anything,” Otto said. “The EPA needs to make a decision on how to mitigate this. There’s plenty of public input.”
Page, on the County Council, said he plans to make sure they do. “If they don’t, we’ll be loud about it.”