International nuclear waste expert Robert Alvarez says the Environmental Protection Agency “erred” in its 2008 decision to leave “highly radiotoxic” waste at the West Lake Landfill site in Bridgeton.
Alvarez, a senior scholar at the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington, D.C., presented a 17-page report on the site at the request of the Missouri Coalition for the Environment during a recent public meeting held at the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 513 in Bridgeton.
Karl Brooks, Region 7 administrator for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), said at a previous public meeting that radioactive waste at West Lake Landfill does not pose a public health threat “as long as people remain outside the secured, fenced area.”
Alvarez said that is inaccurate. He classifies West Lake Landfill as a “de facto nuclear waste disposal site” that contains biologically harmful material. This material can cause damage to human cells, genetic mutations, cancer, and “a host of other diseases,” he said.
He spent a great deal of time discussing thorium-230. According to the National Academy of Sciences, thorium-230 is 20 times more carcinogenic than x-rays. More of this radioactive isotope exists at West Lake “than any other nuclear weapons disposal site,” he said.
Although these particles aren’t powerful enough to penetrate like an x-ray or gamma ray, he said, a person should avoid breathing or ingesting them. To better explain, he compared them to different guns.
“X-rays would be like bb guns or .22 calibers,” he said. “These [particles] are like .44 magnum bullets hitting the internal cells.”
A 1990 public health report by the U.S. Public Health Service and EPA states, “We know very little about specific exposure levels of thorium that result in harmful effects in people or animals.”
Brooks of the EPA has publicly reassured residents that their drinking water is safe because it did not come from “groundwater at the West Lake Landfill.” The site lies on the Mississippi River alluvial floodplain, which is about 1.2 miles from the Missouri River, Alvarez said.
Radioactive wastes at West Lake Landfill have the potential to migrate off-site through comingled solvents and groundwater fluctuations, he said. This confirmed a long-held suspicion of Kay Drey, co-founder of the Missouri Coalition for the Environment.
Paul Berry, of Maryland Heights, inquired whether or not there was a likelihood of natural disasters, like earthquakes, causing the off-site migration of radioactive wastes.
There are “geologic risks,” Alvarez responded.
During the Q&A session, Berry’s zealous remarks garnered him a hearty round of applause and even a standing ovation when he said that West Lake Landfill should be a top political priority.
“Politicians today seem to have lost their grit when it comes to issues,” Berry said. “When politicians get angry, that’s when change happens. Without that passion, there’s not going to be any change and it’s going to sit on their desk as it has for 40 years.”
West Lake Landfill is located in the margins of Missouri’s 1st and 2nd congressional districts represented, respectively, by U.S. Rep. Wm. Lacy Clay, a Democrat, and U.S. Rep. Ann Wagner, a Republican. It lies narrowly within Wagner’s district, though the residents most immediately effected by the site span both districts.
Missouri’s U.S. senators, who represent residents throughout the state, are U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill, a Democrat, and U.S. Sen. Roy Blunt, a Republican.
The site will become more radioactive over time, Alvarez said. He cited a U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) report conducted in 1988 stating that the hazards of the waste likely warranted its removal. The NRC, which had regulatory jurisdiction over the site at the time, recommended placing the radioactive wastes in some long-term isolation.
Alvarez agrees. He recommends that congressional representatives seek to remove these radioactive wastes and “ensure long-term stewardship responsibilities under the FUSRAP program.”
FUSRAP, or Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program, is managed by the Army Corps of Engineers and the U.S. Department of Energy. FUSRAP was specifically created to address nuclear weapons radioactive wastes.
“This is a decision that can only be made by the president of the United States with the approval of the United States Congress,” Alvarez said. “It’s incumbent on you to try and convince your elected officials at the federal level of the absolute necessity of putting this facility under the control of the federal government.”