Six perfectly good homes on a quiet Florissant street are being torn down this week, beginning Monday when workers using an excavator ripped apart the first house on Cades Cove Drive.
The demolition marks the start of the nation’s first residential teardown tied to radioactive contamination discovered under occupied properties, according to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
The homes — once considered safe, livable and permanent — are not being demolished because they are structurally unsound, but because radioactive waste was found buried beneath them.
The demolition marks the start of the nation’s first residential teardown tied to radioactive contamination discovered under occupied properties, according to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Federal officials say the contamination traces back to uranium processing for the Manhattan Project during World War II and was buried decades ago when a subdivision was built along Coldwater Creek.
The cleanup is being conducted under the Corps’ Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program, a nationwide effort known as FUSRAP. The Corps said demolishing homes contaminated by radioactive waste is unprecedented under the program.
According to the Corps, a former channel of Coldwater Creek was filled in when the subdivision was built, burying radioactive material beneath the homes. The contamination remained undetected until recent testing.
A Corps spokesman said the six homeowners notified about the demolition have vacated their properties and moved into new homes. They will remain landowners and will be compensated for the value of their homes. Once remediation is complete, the properties will be returned to the owners, according to the Corps.
As demolition began, Raymond Wilhite, a Florissant resident, stood nearby watching. Wilhite said he has leukemia and, although he is receiving compensation through the federal Radiation Exposure Compensation Act, he worries about neighbors who may be living atop contamination without knowing it.
“I need to get all the information I can on what’s going on here, because I hope they do the same thing in my neighborhood,” Wilhite told The American.
Ann Havens, who has lived for 11 years in the contaminated Florissant subdivision, said she was stunned to learn how little testing had been done when the neighborhood was built.
“The rumor is our entire subdivision was built atop contaminated soil. They didn’t test all over; they only tested back here by the creek,” Havens said, pointing toward a home slated for demolition. “You can’t contain water. How far did the water go?”
Havens said she knew nothing about Coldwater Creek contamination when she moved into the Cades Cove Drive subdivision.
“Nobody said anything about Coldwater Creek or this being a waste dump site back in the ’40s. They could have been honest with us,” Havens said. “I had a garden for about eight or nine years, then I found out last year when they told us, ‘Do not disturb the ground more than six inches’ or you’ll run into contaminated soil.
“My major concern now is, when they do the remediation over here, does that really stop the extent of the contamination? I don’t know,” she said.
Chantelle Jones, a former Missouri state representative, two-time breast cancer survivor and founder of the Pink Angels Foundation, said she shares the concerns raised by Wilhite and Havens.
Jones is also executive director of the North County Community Advisory Group, an organization of community leaders and advocates focused on Coldwater Creek contamination. Late last year, after the Corps announced it had earmarked an additional $40.5 million for advanced cleanup operations near Coldwater Creek, Jones issued a statement outlining community expectations, including “environmental justice, sustained accountability, and long-term health protections” at every stage of the cleanup.
“While the newly announced funding represents meaningful progress, the residents of North County require — and deserve — transparent communication, faster remediation timelines, and consistent federal engagement until the cleanup is fully completed,” Jones wrote.
Jones said she appreciates the Corps’ remediation efforts, but said the loss of homes underscores the human cost of decades-old decisions.
“We knew about the radiation exposure on Cades Cove for a little over a year and a half or so, but we didn’t know what the remediation plan would look like until last week,” Jones said. “We are happy to see the visibility of the cleanup, but we are not happy at all about the six families losing their homes. Our hearts go out to them.”
Although the Corps has not released detailed information about the scope or timeline of its radiation cleanup in Florissant, Col. Andy Pannier, commander of the Corps’ St. Louis District, said the agency realizes the demolition work has frustrated and inconvenienced neighborhood residents.
“We understand the disruption this work causes for the homeowners and community, and we deeply empathize with the challenges they face,” Pannier said. “Remediating this contamination is a difficult and complex process, but it is one we undertake with the utmost care and commitment to the residents of this community.”
As cleanup continues in North County, Jones said her organization has outlined expectations for the federal agency that include “expedited cleanup; transparent public reporting; access to health education and long-term monitoring; safeguards for families living along Coldwater Creek; and accountability.”
Jones said the group has yet to receive answers to many questions residents have raised but is working to organize an open, informational meeting with Corps officials.
“This community is finally moving forward in demanding answers from the U.S. Army Corps, and we want to do it in an efficient, collaborative way,” Jones said. “I think if we move together, we will get more answers and more work done collaboratively.”
Sylvester Brown Jr. is the Deaconess Foundation Community Advocacy Fellow.