West Lake Landfill | |
---|---|
Superfund site | |
Geography | |
City | Bridgeton |
County | St. Louis County |
State | Missouri |
Coordinates | 38°45′57.59″N90°26′38.42″W / 38.7659972°N 90.4440056°W |
Information | |
CERCLIS ID | MOD079900932 |
Progress | |
Proposed | 10/28/1989 [ citation needed ] |
Listed | 08/30/1990 [ citation needed ] |
List of Superfund sites |
West Lake Landfill is a closed, unlined mixed-waste landfill located in Bridgeton, Missouri. It was featured in the 2015 documentaries The First Secret City, [1] The Safe Side of the Fence and the 2017 HBO documentary Atomic Homefront . Its contents have been shown to include radioactive waste; it is thus also an EPA Superfund cleanup site. [2] [3] [4]
The West Lake Landfill site originated in 1939 as a limestone quarry operated by the Westlake Quarry Company. [4] [5] [6] Landfilling at the site began in the 1950s. [7]
In 1973, after having changed hands (and responsible oversight) several times, B&K Construction Co., a company contracted by Cotter Corporation, dumped a portion of the original stored radioactive material at a nearby storage facility. 8,700 short tons (7,900 tonnes) of leached barium sulfate, the material with the lowest relative radioactivity, was combined with 39,000 short tons (35,000 t) of topsoil to dilute the contaminated material at the landfill. [8] [9] [10] The leached barium sulfate was a byproduct of Mallinckrodt Chemical Works’ uranium enrichment program as a part of the Manhattan Project and later nuclear weapons production, [11] and dumping it there was illegal. [12] Due to the discovery of the radioactive and other contaminants at the site, West Lake was proposed as a Superfund site in October 1989 and was officially listed as such a site in August 1990. [13]
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission discovered the disposal and investigated the site, publishing a report in 1977. [14]
West Lake was proposed to be a Superfund site on October 28, 1989, [13] and the EPA placed the landfill on the National Priorities List, [15] designating it as a Superfund site on August 30, 1990. [16] The EPA has listed four potentially responsible parties: the US Department of Energy; the Cotter Corporation; and Republic Services subsidiaries Bridgeton Landfill and Rock Road Industries. [2] The EPA directed those parties to undertake investigations and evaluations consistent with CERCLA (Superfund) guidance. [3]
After decades of investigation, including multiple studies, public meetings, and public comment periods, the EPA selected a final site cleanup plan. [5] [17] In 2008, the EPA announced that they would contain the contaminated sites by placing a multilayered cover over 40 acres (16 ha) of OU-1. [5] [18] [19] The EPA plan also required institutional controls and monitoring of the site. [5] [20] After receiving additional comments from environmental groups and the general public, the EPA asked the potentially responsible parties to commission a study of alternative cleanup options. [2] [19] [21] [22] The resulting supplemental feasibility study was released in 2011. [19]
In 2012, following consultation with the EPA National Remedy Review Board, the EPA asked the potentially responsible parties to gather more data and perform additional evaluations. [21] After conducting an aerial survey of the site and surrounding areas in 2013, the EPA reported that the radioactive waste remained contained within OU-1 and posed no safety risk to outlying areas. [23]
The West Lake landfill has drawn further scrutiny because of a nearby subsurface smoldering fire (in OU-2), an event located only 1,000 feet (300 m) away from OU-1. [24] If the fire were to reach the OU-1 area of radioactive waste, the radiation risks are low. [25]
In February 2018, EPA head Scott Pruitt announced a proposed plan to remediate the West Lake Landfill. Known as “Excavation Plus” or “Alternative 4,” the plan involved removing radioactively impacted material with a concentration greater than 52.9 picocuries per gram (pCi/g), to a maximum depth of 16 feet. The proposal would remove approximately 67 percent of the radioactivity from the landfill and take 5 years to implement at an estimated cost of $236 million. Potentially responsible parties, including Bridgeton Landfill LLC, Rock Road Industries Inc., Cotter Corporation, and the Department of Energy are liable for the costs of the clean-up. Included in the plan is a proposal to build a cover system which will protect the community of Bridgeton for the long term. [26] [27]
The landfill is divided into multiple sectors, within which are two operable units (OU), OU-1 and OU-2. OU-1 contains radioactive material; OU-2 has been shown to as well. [28] OU-1 covers 940 cubic yards (720 m3) on the surface (based on soil depth of 6 inches or 150 millimeters) and 24,000 cubic yards (18,000 m3) subsurface, while OU-2 covers 8,700 cubic yards (6,700 m3) on the surface and 109,000 cubic yards (83,000 m3) subsurface. [13]
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) currently holds control over the West Lake Landfill. [29] The EPA has commissioned multiple studies and reports detailing the history, status and proposed remedies of OU-1. [30] [31]
In April 2000, the EPA released a report, "Remedial Investigation Report West Lake Landfill Operable Unit 1," which detailed the history and condition of the site. [32] The EPA released a feasibility study on OU-1 in May 2006, which evaluated possible remedial options for OU-1. [33] The study contains a chapter detailing the site’s condition as of 2006. [34]
After these and other thorough investigations, the EPA signed a Record of Decision (ROD) for OU-1. In May 2008, the EPA released its record of decision, which outlined the designated course of action for remediation, including designation of a capping system designed to contain hazardous areas, and plans for long-term monitoring of ground water. [35] [36] In particular, it detailed the EPA’s proposed remedy of a multilayer landfill cover over the affected areas of OU-1. [5] [37] The EPA commissioned a supplemental feasibility study, [38] [39] which followed internal agency deliberations and consideration of comments provided by interested community members. [19] [21] [40] [41]
The EPA continued to receive feedback regarding the Record of Decision (ROD), and in response required that potentially responsible parties conduct a Supplemental Feasibility Study (SFS) for OU-1. [42] [43] The full SFS was released to the public in December 2011 [43] [44]
The current milestones and timeline from the FDA includes: [45]
In December 2010, those overseeing the adjoining OU-2 landfill area, the Bridgeton Sanitary Landfill "reported... experiencing elevated temperatures on some gas extraction wells" and concluded that a subsurface smoldering event (SSE) had begun. [46] [47] SSEs are a form of chemical combustion that occur deep within a landfill and produces no visible flame or quantity of smoke, unless they reach the surface, where oxygen is abundant. They usually last for several years. [48]
In March 2013, high subsurface temperatures were measured at depths of over 150 feet covering an area of over 15 football fields. Trying to excavate such a large area to put out the reaction would be difficult, if not impossible, and would most likely increase toxic fumes and the risk of the reaction breaking through to the surface. [49]
Since the discovery of the smoldering fire, Republic Services ordered an isolation barrier be built (September 2013), which will prevent smoldering sanitary waste from reaching the radioactive waste stored in OU-1. [50]
The EPA, working in conjunction with the Missouri Department of Natural Resources, the US Army Corps of Engineers and others, announced a decision in December, 2015, to install a physical isolation barrier for the West Lake Landfill Superfund Site. The plan recommends the installation of other engineering controls, including cooling loops, to prevent any potential impacts in the likely event that the subsurface smoldering event came in contact with the radioactive materials on the site. [51]
Further, landfill owners plan to install a cap over the North Quarry, create trenches to capture liquid and gas underneath the cap, in addition to improving techniques used to monitor gas. [50]
There is some radioactive waste in the West Lake Landfill. An independent evaluation by Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry in 2015 concluded that it does not pose a health risk to the surrounding communities. [52] The amount of radon gas was well below the level that causes lung cancer, groundwater near the landfill moves away from the surrounding communities and is not used for drinking water, and soil samples showed no evidence of radioactive contamination. [52] [53]
In mid-2016 there was a movement for control of the West Lake landfill to be shifted to the Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program (FUSRAP), administered by the United States Army Corps of Engineers. [54] FUSRAP was established in 1974 to clean up radioactive wastes resulting from early nuclear activity of the US Atomic Energy Commission. [55] [56] FUSRAP uses independent government scientists to conduct site studies and evaluations. After thorough evaluations are conducted, the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) determines how to manage the radioactive waste. [55] Fiscally responsible parties are not able to legally challenge this decision. [55] FUSRAP currently controls two on-going remediation projects within the greater St. Louis metropolitan area, the St. Louis Airport Site (SLAPS) and the Hazelwood Interim Storage Site (HISS), both of which contain the same composition of radioactive waste as the West Lake Landfill. [57] [58]
According to Steven Stockton, the corps' director of civil works, adding West Lake to the FUSRAP would not speed up remediation. [54] In addition, key US congressional energy committee members, along with the US Army Corps of Engineers oppose a proposal by Missouri's delegation to move the landfill's oversight from the EPA Superfund to FUSRAP. [59]
Industrial waste is the waste produced by industrial activity which includes any material that is rendered useless during a manufacturing process such as that of factories, mills, and mining operations. Types of industrial waste include dirt and gravel, masonry and concrete, scrap metal, oil, solvents, chemicals, scrap lumber, even vegetable matter from restaurants. Industrial waste may be solid, semi-solid or liquid in form. It may be hazardous waste or non-hazardous waste. Industrial waste may pollute the nearby soil or adjacent water bodies, and can contaminate groundwater, lakes, streams, rivers or coastal waters. Industrial waste is often mixed into municipal waste, making accurate assessments difficult. An estimate for the US goes as high as 7.6 billion tons of industrial waste produced annually, as of 2017. Most countries have enacted legislation to deal with the problem of industrial waste, but strictness and compliance regimes vary. Enforcement is always an issue.
Superfund is a United States federal environmental remediation program established by the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 (CERCLA). The program is administered by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and is designed to pay for investigating and cleaning up sites contaminated with hazardous substances. Sites managed under this program are referred to as Superfund sites. Of the tens of thousands of sites selected for possible action under the Superfund program, 1178 remain on the National Priorities List (NPL) that makes them eligible for cleanup under the Superfund program. Sites on the NPL are considered the most highly contaminated and undergo longer-term remedial investigation and remedial action (cleanups). The state of New Jersey, the fifth smallest state in the U.S., is the location of about ten percent of the priority Superfund sites, a disproportionate amount.
The Hercules 009 Landfill Superfund site is a 16.5-acre (67,000 m2) property that is bordered by Georgia State Route 25 on the west; an automobile dealership on the north; a juvenile slash pine forest on the east; and several homes, a church, a school, and a strip shopping center to the south/southeast of the property. Hercules Inc. was issued a permit in 1975 by the GaEPD to use 7 acres (28,000 m2) at the northern end of the property as a landfill to dispose of toxaphene-contaminated wastewater sludge generated during the manufacturing processes. The 009 Landfill was constructed at the northern end of the property as six cells, each approximately 100 to 200 feet (61 m) wide and 400 feet (120 m) long. Toxaphene has been detected at levels exceeding 15,000 parts per million at the Hercules 009 Landfill Site.
A landfill fire occurs when waste disposed of in a landfill ignites and spreads. Two types of landfills fires are generally recognized – surface fires and deep-seated fires. Surface fires typically occur in underdeveloped countries that lack capacity to properly cover waste with inert daily and intermediate cover. Modern examples of such fires include the Deonar and Ghazipur Landfills in India, Cerro Patacon Landfill in Panama and the New Providence Landfill in the Bahamas.
Havertown Superfund is a 13-acre polluted groundwater site in Havertown, Pennsylvania contaminated by the dumping of industrial waste by National Wood Preservers from 1947 to 1991. The state first became aware of the pollution in 1962 and initiated legal action against the owners in 1973 to force them to cleanup the site. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ranked the site the eighth worst cleanup project in the United States. The site was added to the National Priorities List in 1983 and designated as a Superfund cleanup site in the early 1990s. Remediation and monitoring efforts are ongoing and the EPA transferred control of the site to the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection in 2013.
Diamond Alkali Company was an American chemical company incorporated in 1910 in West Virginia by a group of glass industry businessmen from Pittsburgh. The company soon established a large chemical plant at Fairport Harbor, Ohio, which would operate for over sixty years. In 1947, the headquarters of the company was moved from Pittsburgh to Cleveland. Later the company established a plant in Redwood City, California, that produced ion-exchange resins. In 1967, Diamond Alkali and Shamrock Oil and Gas merged to form the Diamond Shamrock Corporation. Diamond Shamrock would go on to merge with Ultramar Corporation, and the combined company, Ultramar Diamond Shamrock Corporation, would in turn be acquired by Valero Energy Corporation in 2001.
The Rocky Flats National Wildlife Refuge is 5,237-acre (21.19 km2) National Wildlife Refuge in the United States, located approximately 16 miles (26 km) northwest of Denver, Colorado. The refuge is situated west of the cities of Broomfield and Westminster and situated north of the city of Arvada.
Republic Services, Inc. is a North American waste disposal company whose services include non-hazardous solid waste collection, waste transfer, waste disposal, recycling, and energy services. It is the second largest provider of waste disposal in the United States after Waste Management.
In 1990, the Allied Paper, Inc./Portage Creek/Kalamazoo River in southwestern Michigan was declared by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to be a Superfund site – in other words, an abandoned industrial site containing significant amounts of toxic waste. The EPA and companies responsible for the waste in this area, which includes a three-mile section of Portage Creek as well as part of the Kalamazoo River, into which it flows, are currently involved in an effort to reduce the amount of toxic waste at the site, which is contaminated by PCBs from paper mills and other factories.
The former Operating Industries Inc. Landfill is a Superfund site located in Monterey Park, California at 900 N Potrero Grande Drive. From 1948 to 1984, the landfill accepted 30 million tons of solid municipal waste and 300 million US gallons (1,100,000 m3) of liquid chemicals. Accumulating over time, the chemical waste polluted the air, leached into groundwater, and posed a fire hazard, spurring severely critical public health complaints. Recognizing OII Landfill's heavy pollution, EPA placed the financial responsibility of the dump's clean-up on the main waste-contributing companies, winning hundreds of millions of dollars in settlements for the protection of human health and the environment.
Shpack Landfill is a hazardous waste site in Norton, Massachusetts. After assessment by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) it was added to the National Priorities List in October 1986 for long-term remedial action. The site cleanup is directed by the federal Superfund program. The Superfund site covers 9.4 acres, mostly within Norton, with 3.4 acres in the adjoining city of Attleboro. The Norton site was operated as a landfill dump accepting domestic and industrial wastes, including low-level radioactive waste, between 1946 and 1965. The source of most of the radioactive waste, consisting of uranium and radium, was Metals and Controls Inc. which made enriched uranium fuel elements for the U.S. Navy under contract with the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission. Metals and Controls merged with Texas Instruments in 1959. The Shpack landfill operation was shut down by a court order in 1965.
Halaco Engineering Co. operated a scrap metal recycling facility at 6200 Perkins Road, Oxnard, Ventura County, California from 1965 to 2004. The state placed the facility on the California Hazardous Waste Priority List in 2007. The facility includes a smelter area west and the Waste Management Unit (WMU) east of the Oxnard Industrial Drain (OID). Attention was brought to the Halaco site through illegal waste disposal without permits. Further investigation yielded a discovery of harmful contaminants. Remediation of surrounding contaminated areas including the wetlands was completed in 2007. Restoration of the wetlands and management of the WMU are ongoing.
The Waste Disposal Inc. Superfund site is an oil-related contaminated site in the highly industrialized city of Santa Fe Springs in Los Angeles County, California. It is approximately 38 acres (15 ha), with St Paul's high school immediately adjacent to the northeast corner of the site. Approximately 15,000 residents of Santa Fe Springs obtain drinking water from wells within three miles (4.8 km) of the site.
The California Gulch site consists of approximately 18 square miles in Lake County, Colorado. The area includes the city of Leadville, parts of the Leadville Historic Mining District and a section of the Arkansas River from the confluence of California Gulch downstream to the confluence of Two-Bit Gulch. The site was listed as a Superfund site in 1983.
Coldwater Creek is a 19-mile tributary of the Missouri River in north St. Louis County in the U.S. state of Missouri. It is known to be contaminated with radioactive wastes several miles upstream of its northern mouth.
The Nebraska Ordnance Plant is a former United States Army ammunition plant located approximately ½ mile south of Mead, Nebraska and 30 miles west of Omaha, Nebraska in Saunders County. It originally extended across 17,250 acres (69.8 km2) producing weapons from 1942-45 after which the Army used it as a bomb factory during the Vietnam War. Environmental investigations in the 1980's found the soil and groundwater contaminated with the explosive RDX and the degreaser trichloroethylene. In 1990, federal agencies added the site to the National Priorities List as a Superfund site. Remediation included soil excavation and water treatment, the latter of which has been ongoing since 1997. Water is contained and treated at 4 treatment plants and the known plumes are monitored at hundreds of wells. The latest wells, dug deeper into the bedrock than previously, showed RDX and TCE above desired action levels in April 2016.
The Dewey Loeffel Landfill is an EPA superfund site located in Rensselaer County, New York. In the 1950s and 1960s, several companies including General Electric, Bendix Corporation and Schenectady Chemicals used the site as a disposal facility for more than 46,000 tons of industrial hazardous wastes, including solvents, waste oils, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), scrap materials, sludges and solids. Some hazardous substances, including volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and PCBs, have migrated from the facility to underlying aquifers and downstream surface water bodies, resulting in contamination of groundwater, surface water, sediments and several species of fish. There is currently a ban on fish consumption in Nassau Lake and the impacted tributaries. Following prior assessments and attempts at mitigating drainage from the site, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has placed the site on its National Priority List. As of 2024, the EPA reports ongoing site investigations.
The Maywood Chemical Company processed radioactive thorium waste from 1916 through 1955 in Maywood / Rochelle Park, in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States. The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) deemed Maywood Chemical a Superfund site in 1983 and has since been in the clean process.
The G&H Industrial Landfill is a Superfund site located in Shelby Charter Township near Utica, Michigan, United States. The 60-acre (24-hectare) landfill, with about 10 to 20 acres of adjacent property, operated as a waste oil recovery facility from 1955 to 1967. From 1955 to 1974 the site was used as an industrial and municipal landfill. Contaminated soil, surface water, and groundwater with hazardous chemicals have been left behind as a result of the disposal of waste solvents, waste oil and paint sludge. Operation and maintenance activities are ongoing following the cleanup.
A balefill is a type of landfill where solid waste is compacted and baled, typically held together with steel strapping or wrapped in plastic.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link){{cite news}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link){{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)Subtitle: Plan for West Lake Landfill is touted as best option, but it draws fire from activist.