St. Louis, MO: The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Region 7 is requiring the financially responsible parties at the West Lake Landfill to implement plans for mitigating surface fires. This action follows a surface fire near the radioactive materials in October of 2015 and 20 years after a surface fire in the North Quarry that reached 800°F. The North Quarry surface fire occurred closer to the known areas of radioactive wastes than the ongoing smoldering fire in the South Quarry.
“Common-sense would have been for the EPA to do this in 1995 when a surface fire was reported to them in the North Quarry,” said Ed Smith with MCE. “That is why we continue to support the bipartisan legislation in Congress to put the Army Corps of Engineers in charge of decision making at this site.”
The Missouri Department of Natural Resources has information on historic fire issues at the West Lake Landfill on its website.
