West Lake Landfill

U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley said concerns about cost killed earlier efforts to renew a program for people exposed to radioactive waste. Hawley hopes a new compromise with a lower mandatory spending price tag will finally break through.

Lawmakers formed a new committee to document the effects of radioactive waste in the St. Louis region and other Missouri sites and to search for policy solutions.

And how a federal agency with a history of “faulty research” became “a shield for polluters.”

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

An amendment to the annual defense spending bill fell along party lines in the House Rules Committee. The legislation would have added Missouri ZIP codes to the RECA program.

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.’

Despite pleas from community members who say the landfill is responsible for mysterious illnesses, federal environmental regulators said Tuesday they can’t provide a timeline for cleanup.

The EPA admits that nuclear waste at the West Lake Landfill Superfund site is more extensive than previously stated. The timeline to begin cleanup has been delayed due to the need for additional testing.