The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers found radioactive waste contamination in seven more properties near Coldwater Creek, said Corps representatives at a press conference on Monday.
Coldwater Creek runs throughout North St. Louis County and is a tributary for the Missouri River.
The investigations for the properties have not been completed, but owners have been notified about the possibility of remediation, said Bruce Munholand, program manager for the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers’ FUSRAP (Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program.)
The Corps started testing in the Coldwater Creek area in 2013, he said, and in August 2015 found contamination in five properties – four-single family homes and the Chez Paree apartment complex near Palm Drive in Hazelwood.
The new properties are near Palm Drive – three are homes and four are commercial properties. The Corps is verifying that all property owners have been contacted before releasing the locations of the properties.
The health risk for the levels of contamination found are low, Munholand said, based on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s “acceptable risk” guidelines. The radioactive soil is from six inches to five feet below the surface, so he advises the owners not to disrupt the soil. Hence, no gardening, he said.
Munholand said he called the press conference because the FUSRAP project leaders will be making a presentation at a public meeting this Wednesday from 6-8:30 p.m. in the James J. Eagan Community Center in Florissant.
“Our primary message is we want to maintain transparency in the community,” he said. “We developed a fabulous working environment with the community. I think they understand what we are doing and respect what we are doing. Mutually we respect their communities”
He said reporting to the residents about new properties as they discover them “maintains that relationship.”
However, he also expects to address some “misperceptions” about the West Lake Landfill, located near the intersection of Interstates 270 and 70 in North St. Louis County.
The radioactive waste at the landfill is the same waste that is affecting the Coldwater Creek area. The waste came from Mallinckrodt Chemical Works’ uranium processing for the first atomic bomb in the early1940s. Mallinckrodt began moving the radioactive waste to the St. Louis Airport Site (SLAPS) and also the Hazelwood Interim Storage Site (HISS) on Latty Avenue.
Radioactive materials were stored next to Coldwater Creek, which carried the contamination through the now-residential neighborhood.
Some of that same waste was also illegally dumped at the West Lake Landfill. The landfill is a Superfund site under the EPA’s jurisdiction. However residents have criticized the EPA for not taking steps to clean up the area and have demanded that the Corps’ FUSRAP team take over the site. U.S. congressman recently filed legislation to push forward their agenda.
However, Munholand said that they currently “don’t have a mission with West Lake.”
“The properties that we are taking care of are substantially removed from the West Lake site,” he said. “We are miles away from the landfill.”
The FUSRAP contractors are taking steps to remove the contamination from the first five properties in the Coldwater Creek area, he said, and the waste will eventually end up contained in Montana. The Corps initiated a remedial action plan about 10 to 15 years ago, but first went after industrial areas that were “the most widespread and easiest to access,” Munholand said.
FUSRAP contractors are currently sampling Coldwater Creek from Frost Avenue to St. Denis Bridge. Over 7,000 samples to date have been collected from this 3.4 mile stretch of creek and its adjacent 10-year flood plain. Contractors are expected to finish sampling this section in 2016.
They are currently remediating contamination from St. Cin Park and are expecting to finish in February. Remediation to Duchesne Park will follow after, and then contractors will begin to remediate Palm Drive properties. For these properties, the Corps will have to relocate utility poles, remove trees and build a haul road.
In 2011, former and current residents near Coldwater Creek began to notice “unexplainably high incidents of cancer and disease in our relatively young population,” according to the group’s website Coldwater Creek Facts.com. St. Louis County Health Department has begun studying the effects of the contamination in that area.
Munholand said that the Corps has no contact or communication with the health department. He did say that representatives from the health department were expected to be at the community meeting on Wednesday to answer questions.
For more information during Coldwater remedial activities, call the Corps public affairs office at 331-8000 or visit http://bit.ly/FUSRAPstl.
Follow this reporter on Twitter @rebeccarivas.
I lived off of Humes and Patterson rd. All of the 1960 and 1970. I am 78 years old and hav3 had lots of medical problems. My 2 younger brothers have cancer. I just don’t know if I should join in on this.