KANSAS CITY – The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will conduct more testing for radioactive contamination at an elementary school in suburban St. Louis.
The Corps said it will expand its sampling to include the entire property with soil samples and structure surveys both inside and outside the school.
Preliminary results of the testing will be available within two weeks, it says. Additionally, the Corps says its working with the Department of Energy to conduct a peer review of its work.
A recent study conducted by Boston Chemical Data Corp. found levels of radioactive isotope lead-210, polonium, radium and other toxins were “far in excess” of what they’d expected in dust samples taken at different locations in and around the school.
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The school sits in the floodplain of Coldwater Creek, which flows through the northern suburbs of St. Louis into the Missouri River. The creek was contaminated by radioactive materials by waste from weapon development from the Manhattan Project during WWII. That waste was dumped at sites near the St Louis airport, next to the creek.
As a result of the Boston Chemical test results, the Hazelwood school board said all students and staff would move to remote learning for the rest of the semester. Then after Thanksgiving break, students and staff of Jana Elementary will be moved and re-assigned to other schools around the district.