Table of Contents
Where is the West Lake Landfill?
Bridgeton, Missouri
The 200-acre West Lake Landfill site is located at 13570 St. Charles Rock Road in the Earth City Industrial Park in Bridgeton, Missouri.
How did radioactive waste end up at the West Lake Landfill?
The contamination issues at West Lake have festered for decades, ever since World War II-era radioactive waste stemming from local uranium processing for the Manhattan Project was illegally dumped at the site in the 1970s.
What is the company name that started the processing of uranium in St Louis?
It is a story of how the St. Louis based Mallinckrodt Chemical Company became the first industrial-scale producer of uranium metal and uranium oxide, and eventually one of the three largest uranium refiners in America.
What is a landfill smolder?
The facility began testing the landfill gas and found high levels of hydrogen and carbon monoxide and low levels of methane. All these conditions are indicative of a below-ground, high-temperature chemical reaction, also known as a “subsurface smoldering event” or “underground fire.”
What materials were disposed of in the West Lake Landfill?
The West Lake Landfill has been used since 1962 for the disposal of municipal refuse, industrial solid and liquid wastes, and construction demolition debris. Between 1939 and the spring of 1987, limestone was quarried there. Landfill operations filled in some of the excavated pits from the quarry operations.
What caused the fire in the West Lake Landfill?
Here is what you need to know about the situation in Missouri. An exothermic reaction at the Bridgeton (Mo.) Sanitary Landfill that began nearly six years ago continues to smolder. This is a concern because of low-level radioactive material that was disposed of at the adjacent West Lake Landfill in 1973.
Was the Manhattan Project in St. Louis?
In the 1940s, St. Louis was an integral part of the Manhattan Project. Mallinckrodt Chemical Works processed a majority of the uranium needed for the building of the first atomic bomb at their plant north of downtown St. Louis next to the Mississippi River.
Why do landfills have a flame?
Gas flares, or flare stacks, as they’re known in the industry, are used for the disposal of excess methane gas. The gas flare along I-89 belongs to the Moretown Landfill, one of two commercially owned landfills in Vermont.
Do landfills ever catch on fire?
In California alone more than 25 subsurface landfill fires have been reported during the past 15 years. Most of the incidents are small fires or rapid oxidation events and are usually handled by the operating facility and the local or state regulatory agency.
What is landfill smolder?
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.
What is the West Lake Landfill Superfund site?
The West Lake Landfill Superfund Site is located in Bridgeton, Missouri. The site consists of several inactive landfills, including the West Lake Landfill and the Bridgeton Landfill. Originally used for agriculture, the land became a limestone quarrying and crushing operation in 1939.
Where is West Lake Landfill in Missouri?
/ 38.7659972°N 90.4440056°W / 38.7659972; -90.4440056 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, The Safe Side of the Fence and the 2017 HBO documentary Atomic Homefront.
Is the West Lake landfill site in Bridgeton a health risk?
NO OFF-SITE HEALTH RISKS Based on current data, there are no off-site health risks for those living and working around the West Lake Landfill Superfund Site in Bridgeton, Mo.
When did EPA sign record of decision on West Lake Landfill?
Engineering Management Support, Inc. 8 May 2006. p. 6. Retrieved 22 January 2017. ^ “05/29/2008: EPA Signs Record of Decision on West Lake Landfill Superfund Site in Bridgeton, Mo”. yosemite.epa.gov. Retrieved 2017-01-22.