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St. Louis Prepares For "Catastrophic Event" As Underground Fire Nears Nuclear Waste Cache
Beneath the surface of a St. Louis-area landfill lurk two things that should never meet: a slow-burning fire and a cache of Cold War-era nuclear waste, separated by no more than 1,200 feet.
Government officials have quietly adopted an emergency plan in case the smoldering embers ever reach the waste, a potentially “catastrophic event” that could send up a plume of radioactive smoke over a densely populated area near the city’s main airport.
Although the fire at Bridgeton Landfill has been burning since at least 2010, the plan for a worst-case scenario was developed only a year ago and never publicized until this week, when St. Louis radio station KMOX first obtained a copy.
But don't panic, as officials say it is "contained"...
County Executive Steve Stenger cautioned that the plan “is not an indication of any imminent danger.”
“It is county government’s responsibility to protect the health, safety and well-being of all St. Louis County residents,” he said in a statement.
Landfill operator Republic Services downplayed any risk. Interceptor wells — underground structures that capture below-surface gasses — and other safeguards are in place to keep the fire and the nuclear waste separate.
“County officials and emergency managers have an obligation to plan for various scenarios, even very remote ones,” landfill spokesman Russ Knocke said in a statement. The landfill “is safe and intensively monitored.”
The cause of the fire is unknown. For years, the most immediate concern has been an odor created by the smoldering. Republic Services is spending millions of dollars to ease or eliminate the smell by removing concrete pipes that allowed the odor to escape and installing plastic caps over parts of the landfill.
Directly next to Bridgeton Landfill is West Lake Landfill, also owned by Republic Services. The West Lake facility was contaminated with radioactive waste from uranium processing by a St. Louis company known as Mallinckrodt Chemical. The waste was illegally dumped in 1973 and includes material that dates back to the Manhattan Project, which created the first atomic bomb in the 1940s.
The Environmental Protection Agency is still deciding how to clean up the waste. The landfill was designated a Superfund site in 1990.
The proximity of the two environmental hazards is what worries residents and environmentalists. At the closest point, they are 1,000 to 1,200 feet apart.
If the underground fire reaches the waste, “there is a potential for radioactive fallout to be released in the smoke plume and spread throughout the region,” according to the disaster plan.
The plan calls for evacuations and development of emergency shelters, both in St. Louis County and neighboring St. Charles County. Private and volunteer groups, and perhaps the federal government, would be called upon to help, depending on the severity of the emergency.
No reports of illness have been linked to the nuclear waste. But the smell caused by the underground burning is often so foul that Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster sued Republic Services in 2013, alleging negligent management and violation of state environmental laws. The case is scheduled to go to trial in March.
Last month, Koster said he was troubled by new reports about the site. One found radiological contamination in trees outside the landfill’s perimeter. Another showed evidence that the fire has moved past two rows of interceptor wells and closer to the nuclear waste.
Koster said the reports were evidence that Republic Services “does not have this site under control.” Republic Services responded by accusing the state of intentionally exacerbating “public angst and confusion.”
Ed Smith of the Missouri Coalition for the Environment said he would like to see the county become even more involved “to ensure that businesses, schools, hospitals and individuals know how to respond in a possible disaster at the landfill, just like preparing for an earthquake or tornado.”
Underground smoldering is not unheard of, especially in abandoned coal mines. Common causes include lightning strikes, forest fires and illegal burning of waste.
At least 98 underground mine fires in nine states were burning in 2013, according to the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement.
Few underground fires can match one in Centralia, Pennsylvania. In 1962, a huge pile of trash in the town dump, near a coal mine, was set on fire, and it has burned beneath the town for more than half a century.
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tech personal on the site: when things get real serious we shall wash our hands and walk away
How far is it from Ferguson?!?
Not far 6-7 miles just down the road actually.
ALL nuclear waste needs to be transported and dumped on Harry Reid's lawn - it can't hurt him since he already looks irradiated and freeze-dried.....
Fuki-St-Louis-Ma
Why don't 'terrorist's set old nuclear waste dumps on fire?
"The Environmental Protection Agency is still deciding how to clean up the waste. The landfill was designated a Superfund site in 1990."
So we've been paying these bureaucrats for 25 years to sit around and "decide" what they might do about it.
I want my tax money back.
It’s those Millennials ripping us off.
Did you say E-P-A ?
Ruh-Roh !
This could get really bad. Not like an explosion or anything but definitely hazardous to ones health. More info:http://www.westlakelandfill.com/History.aspx
How does the govt justify spraying its citizens with toxic chemicals? Shouldnt someone's head be on a pike?
CUBS WIN!!!!! CUBS WIN!!!!! (fire will NOT be an issue regarding NLDS games beginning this weekend)
Still not a word on CNN about it.
Maybe if it gets to 100 feet or closer they'll pick it up.
Who exactly is liable for NOT warning the public?
If there is no risk the boss of the Landfill Operator will be happy to move, with his/her family, to the closest available property to the landfill. Right?
Is there any truth to the rumor that the fire is being named the Bartman Blaze in honor of the occasion?
If anything happens go directly to East St. Louis, even nuclear waste is afraid to go there. Oh and Cubs congrats on winning a game to barely get in the playoffs, but, stay in your lane you are still the cubs. I-70 Series The 30 year reunion 1985-2015
If the Cubs win, well there is a correlation that Zh has noted.. LoL
The fire is no more than 1,200 feet away from the nuclear waste cache ! How frightening ! We hope this time the Federal State is preparing to evacuate all the inhabitants of the area, requisitioning all the private air companies and the army for the people that have not got any cars .
I am so sad for the commenters whose parents or relatives died of cancer in Saint-Louis area. If the radioactive plumes of that burning waste from the 1940's Manhattan Project could reach the Pentagon in Washington, we could think the winds would be the posthumous revenge of Hiroshima and Nagazaki japanese civilian families, the victims of the American Manhattan Project nuclear bombs. Always the same cupid-stupid behavior in the army and the same poor innocent victims everywhere . We should also remember how Saint-Louis poor people without personal cars were left to die there in Katrina whereas the army and private air companies could have been requisitioned by the Federal State to rescue them by plane . Always the same lack of empathy from the wealthy for the victims . As for the new wastes from American "impoverished" uranium missiles used in American wars (such as those that contaminated Iraqi soil for centuries), the American People could demand the nuclear waste should be dumped in the Pentagon's backyard, back to the sender.
Sue the government for failing to see their nuclear waste from the Manhattan project being disposed of properly...
This may be to benefit Illinois, Spirit of St. Louis airport, but those at Scott will not be impressed
Perhaps a silver lining?
The radionuclides wipe out the violent kneegrow problem and the area becomes peaceful again.
More likely scenario?
The self-mobile Urban Blight spread like locust taking their criminal activities and murder with them to surrounding cities, like what happened immediately after Katrina.
Actually - this is some of the funniest shit I've read lately. It's so ironic and yet bizarre at the same time. Even Kurt Vonnegut would have had trouble coming up with this one. "The citzenry was first slowly poisioned by the smoke from their own trash, and ultimately destroyed by the wastes left behind from their creation of weapons of mass destruction they used on citizens of other lands." This is truthfully biblical. St. Louis is kind of a cool place too - so it's sad - but I don't have any armed guards that live with me so i wouldn't consider living there, even if this nuclear waste/trash dump scenario wasn't playing out.
https://youtu.be/FHX-PU9SN8A catchy tune
Reminds me of the burning-forever Springfield tire fire on the Simpsons...
Pant, pant, pant, any chance the whole racist city might go up in a puff of radioactive smoke?