By Blythe Bernhard
March 19, 2014
STL
Missouri’s attorney general wants quicker action to keep an underground fire in the Bridgeton Landfill from reaching radioactive material in the adjacent West Lake Landfill, according to a letter sent Tuesday to the Environmental Protection Agency and the landfills’ owner, Republic Services.
The letter from Chris Koster comes one year after he sued Republic Services, alleging violations of environmental laws. Republic’s efforts to keep the fire from spreading “do not address the entire problem” because additional radioactive material has been discovered closer to the fire, the letter said.
Koster wants the EPA and Republic to work more quickly to locate all of the nuclear waste, dumped illegally about 40 years ago and previously thought to be contained in West Lake. Early results from an EPA study show the materials were found beyond the original perimeter and in the north section of the Bridgeton Landfill. The underground fire is in the south section. Koster also wants Republic to start building a barrier to separate the waste from the fire.