Signs warn of radioactive waste in Missouri creek as fight for compensation drags on | KCUR

Federal officials plan to put up warning signs along a contaminated stream in a St. Louis suburb where generations of children were exposed to radioactive material.

Coldwater Creek, which winds 14 miles between homes and parks in St. Louis County before emptying into the Missouri River, is filled with nuclear waste from World War II. For decades, families had no idea of ​​the danger it posed to the children who played on its banks and swam in its waters.

More than six years ago, a federal study found that residents who live near the creek or regularly come into contact with its water are at higher risk for certain types of cancer.

Yet the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which cleans up the creek, has not posted signs warning visitors of the danger.

But this fall, the Corps plans to put up signs along Coldwater Creek warning of “the presence of low-level radioactivity.” In a Facebook post, the Corps' St. Louis branch said the first signs will go up in mid- or late November.

The signs, which feature a prominent yellow warning border, instruct readers not to dig near the creek but caution that the waste does not pose a health hazard as long as the soil remains intact. Corps officials had previously released a draft warning sign with a blue banner saying there was “possibly” radioactive material nearby.

Dawn Chapman is co-founder of Just Moms STL, which advocates for families affected by radioactive waste in the St. Louis area. She said the group is pleased with the new signs and believes they will save lives.

“But we are also so sad because we know people who are hurting, which probably wouldn't have been the case if they had stood up a long time ago,” Chapman said.

The Missouri Coalition for the Environment, which has been advocating for the installation of signs along Coldwater Creek for more than 25 years, said in a press release that the signs were a “step in the right direction” but did not adequately address the dangers along the creek.

The sign does not address areas where contamination may be present on the surface, does not use the universal symbol for radioactive material and could confuse visitors by describing the material as “low-level radioactive,” the Missouri Coalition for the Environment said.

St. Louis has struggled with radioactive contamination since World War II. Uranium used in the development of the atomic bomb was refined in downtown St. Louis. After the war, the waste was dumped at the airport and later at a nearby property – both on Coldwater Creek. The waste was further refined to extract valuable metals, and the remaining material was illegally dumped at the West Lake landfill, where it remains today.

The Corps is leading the Coldwater Creek cleanup, and the Environmental Protection Agency is overseeing work at the West Lake landfill.

Last summer, The Independent, MuckRock and The Associated Press found that federal officials and companies handling the waste have for decades downplayed or failed to investigate the true danger of the material. Since that revelation, U.S. Senator Josh Hawley and members of Congress from Missouri — as well as southwestern states affected by nuclear weapons testing — have been fighting to compensate radioactive waste victims.

To that end, Hawley and Democrat Ben Ray Luján of New Mexico proposed expanding the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act, which was originally passed in 1990 to compensate uranium miners and those who suffered radiation exposure during nuclear bomb tests in parts of Nevada, Utah and Arizona.

Hawley and Luján's bill would expand the program to the rest of Arizona, Nevada and Utah, and for the first time cover Colorado, Idaho, Montana, New Mexico and Guam, whose residents were exposed to radiation during weapons testing. It would also cover Missouri, Tennessee, Alaska and Kentucky.

The bill passed the Senate twice but was never considered in the U.S. House of Representatives. When the House failed to pass an expansion or extension of the RECA law in June, the bill expired.

Hawley told the US Senate last week that the law was “under attack” and that the victims of the infection were being described as “greedy, ungrateful and unworthy”, “not worthy of any help, recognition or thanks from this country”.

Hawley urged members of Congress to “stand up, make their voices heard” and support the bill.

“We will not stop fighting,” he said. “We will not stop working until every victim of nuclear radiation who gave their life and health to support this nation has been thanked and compensated.”

Chapman said RECA advocates will return to Washington, D.C., next week to advocate for the expansion. She said she believes Congress will decide on RECA in the coming months.

“I feel very close,” Chapman said. “We feel like next week could be the end for us.”

This story was originally published by Missouri Independenta newsroom of the states.