In a meeting Tuesday night, residents in the area of the West Lake Landfill learned from the EPA that radioactive waste in the area is more widespread than previously thought — and an underground fire on the site continues to burn.
Dawn Chapman, founder of Just Moms STL, was at the meeting, and said it was discouraging.
"We've been doing this for ten years. I live next to this site, trying to get answers, and other than the fact that they found more, we really didn't walk away with any answers," she said. "They're preparing another meeting on May the night to come back in and give us everything that they know about the site. But it makes no sense why they didn't do that last night."
Chapman said that as the community awaits answers, the situation gets more and more frustrating.
"I stood at the mic for like five seconds last night, and then I just cried. Because now my kid's sick. And now it's personal," she said. "And I feel like, you know, looking back on the past ten years, we fought this agency harder than we fought the polluter. And I don't understand how after 10 years of this, this agency can't learn from its mistakes, and come back and do things right."
At the meeting, the EPA said that while radiation levels are higher than previously thought, it's not a risk to residents. Chapman said it's because of the efforts put forth by her community that the radiation is no longer a risk. People in the area, she said, fought to have areas with surface radiation covered with rock.
"But that doesn't mean that 10 years ago when it wasn't covered that it wasn't a risk. And it doesn't mean that when I moved in here and I was pregnant, it wasn't a risk," she said. Chapman said officials keep telling her that they don't want to focus on the past — they want to focus on what they can do going forward.
"And I'm like, that's great. But you know what, this room is full of sick people. And by the time you get to the cleanup, we're going to be even less," she said. "You know, there's people that have died this past year that weren't in the room last night and that was just very difficult."
Chapman explained that the cleanup process isn't a big deal — it's just getting the regulatory agencies "to the point where they can sink a shovel in it."
"The honest to God problem is we're actually fighting the Department of Energy, another federal regulatory agency who's the polluter at this site. And I believe we all believe that they are stalling and dragging their feet," she said.
Hear more from Dawn Chapman of Just Moms STL on the effort to clean up the area around West Lake Landfill, and how the radioactive waste has affected her community:
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