Since December 2010, a high-temperature underground chemical reaction – which many incorrectly refer to as a “fire” – has been smoldering in Bridgeton Landfill with a large amount of radioactive waste buried near it. There is no barrier to prevent the reaction from spreading to the radioactive waste, which sits in the adjacent West Lake Landfill. And if that chemical reaction does hit the radioactive waste, no human being will want to be anywhere near Bridgeton – particularly near the busy intersection of interstates 270 and 70, where the landfills sit.
Although many local news outlets have reported on this for years, it didn’t register with many people until St. Louis County was caught having an emergency plan should that catastrophe transpire – and Bridgeton go down in history with Chernobyl. Cornered at a public meeting, County Executive Steve Stenger’s emergency management chief, Mark Diedrich, actually said, “We won’t know how far anything is going to reach until it happens.” That is, we won’t know when the chemical reaction will hit the radioactive waste until it hits the radioactive waste. That simply can’t be our final answer.
At that October 15 meeting, the mothers leading the discussion were asked about the worst-case scenario. They pointed to a figure in a report that was recently completed as part of the Attorney General Chris Koster’s lawsuit against the landfill owner, Republic Services, for negligence in their handling of the underground reaction near the radioactive waste. The expert researcher, Tony Sperling, said that if the fire were to move toward the radioactive waste at the same rate that it had been observed spreading in the past, then it could reach the waste in as little as “three to six months.”
This was alarming to those who have just woken up to this issue, but not to those who have been entrenched in it for years. In a June 2013 report, the Missouri Department of Natural Resources (MDNR) – which is in charge of monitoring the landfill – found that the chemical reaction was expanding toward the radioactive waste at a rate of about 3 feet per day. And then it slowed to 1 to 2 feet a day. Continuing at that rate – and assuming the fire and nuclear waste are an estimated 1,000 feet apart – it could have reached the radioactive waste anywhere from 1 to 3 years.
These are all just possible scenarios. Like Diedrich, researchers and experts can’t give concrete answers because there are so many factors involved. It all depends on if all the precautions currently in place are working. And it seems some of them are.
There are two regions within the Bridgeton Landfill – the south quarry, where the underground reaction is, and the north quarry, which is closest to the radioactive waste. The two areas make a bowtie shape, separated by an area called the “neck.” On August 10, MDNR wrote a letter to Republic Services chastising them for not properly setting up a system that would keep the fire from moving into the north quarry. Republic Services had told the department that they were setting up Gas Extraction Wells (GEWs) in the north quarry to help them control the fire. However, Republic drilled the GEWs but then failed to connect to the gas collection and control system, rendering them useless.
MDNR also warned the landfill owners that because they have not yet built the isolation barrier that they agreed to build in 2013, they have no backup plan. MDNR also reported there were some gaps in the “cooling line” at the neck of the landfill. MDNR has been critical of Republic Services about taking necessary precautions – and that’s worrying.
Also in the August letter, MDNR stated that in June seven areas in the north quarry were reported with high methane emissions. Department staff also observed three “leachate outbreaks,” which is as disgusting as it sounds; contaminated tar-looking liquid comes to the surface. “Movement of the smoldering fire has historically been preceded by a steam front which saturates the waste mass,” MDNR stated to the landfill owner – ominously.
Led by the Missouri Coalition for the Environment and a group of concerned mothers, a number of citizens believe that the situation can only get worse because the waste from Mallinckrodt’s 1940s uranium production was illegally dumped there in the 1973 without the proper precaution to prevent catastrophes. Thus, they call for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers needs to remove the waste. That would take a legislative order at this point.
The other position – best voiced by Richard Callow, the veteran political fixer doing media for the landfill owner – is that the situation is under control; the only news here is Koster is waging a law suit in the media against Republic Services to look like a good steward of the environment while he campaigns for governor.
Whatever the political climate may be, consider some geographic facts about West Lake Landfill. It is 5 miles from World Wide Technology’s headquarters, 7 miles from Boeing’s St. Louis County facility and 12 miles from Emerson headquarters.
It is five miles from St. Louis-Lambert International Airport, 18 miles from the new proposed National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency regional hub in St. Louis and 27 miles from the current NGA West facility in St. Louis – not to mention the Anheuser-Busch plant and all of downtown St. Louis.
It is 10 miles from the University of Missouri-St. Louis and St. Louis Community College – Florissant Valley, 16 miles from Washington University and 21 miles from Saint Louis University. Dozens of K-12 schools, not to mention countless human homes, are near the landfills.
We can’t imagine that the leadership of these companies and institutions is complacent about the possibility of a catastrophic nuclear event erupting virtually on their campuses. As long as there is a high-temperature underground chemical reaction at Bridgeton Landfill and no barrier to prevent it from spreading into contact with the radioactive waste buried near it, we must do everything that is possible to prevent catastrophe in St. Louis County.
