Superfund

The landfill contains thousands of tons of nuclear waste and byproducts from World War II-era atomic bomb development efforts.

Superfund sites contain extreme pollution. Flooding — made worse by climate change — could carry toxic contaminants into surrounding areas.

Nuclear contamination in the St. Louis region dates back to the 1940s. Documents show leaders of Mallinckrodt Chemical Works, which processed uranium in St. Louis, knew of the contamination risks in 1949.

The Missouri Independent, MuckRock and The Associated Press spent months combing through thousands of pages of previously-unreleased government records that show radioactive waste was known to pose a threat to people living near Coldwater Creek as early as 1949. But federal officials repeatedly wrote potential risks off as ‘slight,’ ‘minimal’ or ‘low-level.’

Steve Mahfood, former director of the Missouri Department of Natural Resources, says Herculaneum’s not-so-distant past stands as a compelling reminder of how community members and state officials can band together to hold a polluter accountable.

For those concerned about Superfund sites in Missouri and Illinois, the EPA’s newly announced cleanup plans for 49 sites across the U.S come as great news. But community members say it’s also a reminder of just how much work still needs to be done.

Solutia Inc. and Pharmacia LLC have entered into a consent decree with the Environmental Protection Agency to clean up four former landfills and waste lagoons in Sauget.

Jefferson County health officials plan this year to increase testing for lead contamination in residential areas near where companies mined for heavy…

After six years of building demolitions and excavations, workers have finished cleaning up the Carter Carburetor Superfund site in north St. Louis. The…

Missouri Mining Inc. plans to create up to 700 jobs by reopening a mine at a Superfund site in Fredericktown, Missouri. The company wants to extract…