Citizens and Politicians work together to demand answers about Radiation & Chemical contamination

Have to ask.

What is the most important thing you have ever done in your life? Important for your health, for your parent and neighbors, for your spouse, FOR YOUR UNBORN CHILDREN OR GRANDCHILDREN?

Or, what is the most important thing you have ever done for yourself?

Ever consider the possibility of cancer or leukemia from the ground where you live or the water you drink? From the school or playground where your children spend their time?

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First my apology:

I have to come clean, have to admit, have had to realize that I have been too glib, growing up, living near Weldon Springs and sneaking into the abandoned yellow cake factory was just another adventure.

The radiation levels in the springs I used to drink from when hiking in Bush were just novel stories.

I have to apologize.

I was not aware of the health disaster going on all around me at the Weldon Springs contaminated areas, Francis Howell High school and the Cold Water Creek areas in the St. Louis area.

Radioactive and chemical contaminants left over from the the United States push for nuclear weapons.

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First I want to thank Jaclyn Jones of Wentzville for making me aware of the ordinary and extra ordinary citizens seeking answers from the DOE, DNR, & EPA.

So far the most informative and dedicated group I have found is Mission Sunflower (on Facebook)

Some other facebook groups are:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/chasinganswers

Chasing Answers: Did Weldon Spring Make Us Sick?

and

https://www.facebook.com/groups/3136866043201361

STL Toxic Waste Alliance

I created this page as I try to catch up on events, but damn I am horrified after watching the meeting and hearing about all the cancer.

I live in Florida, but my family home is Stonebridge Stables in Missouri.

Please take the time and watch the recording of the Town Hall meeting

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In the Town Hall Meeting recording, I saw numerous elected officials or those running for office and their efforts should be noted:

Tricia Byrnes, Joe Brazil, Richard West, Jay Ashcroft (I think) and I apologize for forgetting the others. The meeting was a long one.

I believe Joe Brazil helped my mother Kim Ryba during the oil pipeline leak in the area called "O'Day Park."

Although not at the meeting, it appears Senator Josh Hawley deserves a huge thank you for sponsoring an amendment to Extend the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA) to cover victims of improperly stored Manhattan Project waste in the St. Louis region.

Senator Josh Hawley's speech

RECA

Senators Bush and Schmidt deserve a round of applause for assisting with the amendment. (I'm trying to acknowledge everyone but am slightly overwhelmed lol, this is new information to me.)

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I copied this (without permission) but it is SO important from the STL Toxic Waste Alliance Facebook page.

Owner is Christen Commuso

A Brief History of Radioactive Material In St. Louis

St. Louis has a long legacy of radioactive contamination related to the production of nuclear weapons. In the 1940s, St. Louis was an integral part of the Manhattan Project. Mallinckrodt Chemical Works processed a majority of the uranium needed for the building of the first atomic bomb at their plant north of downtown St. Louis next to the Mississippi River.

Waste from the downtown Mallinckrodt Plant was transported and stored at a site just north of the current St. Louis-Lambert airport, designated the St. Louis Airport Site (SLAPS), from 1947 until the late 1960s. At this point, it was purchased by Continental Mining and Milling Company and moved to a site half a mile away from SLAPS on Latty Avenue.

The radioactive waste was not stored in a sufficiently protective manner at either SLAPS or Latty Avenue, which resulted in the washing of radioactive material into nearby Coldwater Creek. The creek carried this radioactive material into north St. Louis County, contaminating much of the area around the creek. Communities that grew up living and playing in Coldwater Creek are now seeing increased rates of cancer and autoimmune disorders.

From Latty Avenue, most of the radioactive waste was dried and shipped to Canon City, Colorado for further processing. However, about 8,700 tons of barium sulfate cake that was left at the site was subsequently mixed with soil and dumped in the West Lake Landfill in 1973.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission was responsible for testing and site evaluation of West Lake Landfill during the 1980s. In 1989, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch ran a seven-part series on the history of radioactive contamination in the metro-St. Louis area, which raised serious concerns with locals and led to federal action for cleanup of contaminated sites.

The U.S. Department of Energy is responsible for the long-term cleanup and stewardship of radioactive contamination related to the development of nuclear weapons. In 1990, the DOE determined it would clean up the Mallinckrodt site downtown as well as SLAPS and Latty Avenue along Coldwater Creek. The DOE excluded West Lake Landfill from the cleanup list even though the radioactive material at West Lake Landfill came from the Latty Avenue site. The EPA Superfund program took over lead jurisdiction at West Lake Landfill after the DOE refused to put it on the Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program (FUSRAP) cleanup list.

In 1997, Congress moved the cleanup authority for FUSRAP from the DOE to the Army Corps of Engineers. Since then, FUSRAP in St. Louis has removed more than 1,000,000 cubic yards of radioactive contamination and transported it to out-of-state facilities designed to contain such material.

The EPA reached a decision in 2008 to cap-and-leave the radioactive material permanently. That decision was put on hold in 2009 so site data could be refreshed, including groundwater measurements for radioactivity.

The EPA’s 2008 decision did not consider fire a threat to the radioactivity or human health. In 2010, a smoldering fire was reported to the Missouri Department of Natural Resources (DNR), which is ongoing and could smoldering until 2024 or longer. In 2018, the EPA issued a new decision to remove up to 70% of the radioactivity because leaving all of it at the landfill, according to the Agency, was too risky for public health.

The amount of federal government agencies involved in the cleanup of radioactive sites in the St. Louis area can be confusing. So which government agency is in charge of which sites?

• The United States Department of Energy (DOE) was responsible for the cleanup of Weldon Spring and is responsible for its long-term oversight Weldon Spring through the Office of Legacy Management.

• The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) was responsible for overseeing the cleanup of the Hematite facility in Festus, Missouri. On October 4, 2018, the NRC released the site for unrestricted use following its cleanup.

• The Army Corps of Engineers FUSRAP is responsible for the cleanup of radioactive contamination at the Downtown St. Louis Site, St. Louis Airport Site, Latty Avenue Site in Hazelwood, and vicinity properties contaminated by radioactive material from one of these locations, including Coldwater Creek. Once FUSRAP is finished with its mission, the sites with inaccessible radioactive material it could not remove will will transfer to the the DOE’s Office of Legacy Management for long-term oversight.

• The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is responsible for overseeing the cleanup of radioactivity at the West Lake Landfill Superfund site in St. Louis County.

                            End of borrowed material

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I am still trying to catch up. The face book pages have more information than I can absorb without a month of reading.

Representative Brynes talked about the public well fields and demands to test for safety.

Eating fish from Bush Wildlife Area also came up in the meeting.

I will add New pages or correct this page after I absorb the information & cook the last of my crappie from Lake 33.

Have I mentioned all the crippled catfish I used to catch in Lake 33 as a kid? --Still have the photos. Not everyday do you catch deformed catfish in a uranium zone.

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