"West Lake Landfill Encloses a Unique Danger"

Photo of Bridgeton Landfill Aug. 19, 2013 showing black liner material to be covered. (Photo: dnr.mo.gov/bridgeton/)Kevin Killeen of KMOX/CBS St. Louis has interviewed Beyond Nuclear's Radioactive Waste Watchdog, Kevin Kamps, about the nuclear weapons radioactive wastes illegally dumped in the West Lake Landfill in metro St. Louis, MO:

A radioactive waste watchdog from Maryland is calling for the total removal of nuclear waste from the West Lake Landfill in Bridgeton, Mo. Kevin Kamps, with the group Beyond Nuclear says other towns have nuclear dumps, but St. Louis has something worse.

“In this particular case you have a radioactive waste dump with an underground fire adjacent to it in an urban area on major drinking water supplies,” Kamps says. “So obviously it has to be moved.”

Kamps says the dump, which is 20 miles west of downtown St. Louis, is the only nuclear dump threatened by an underground garbage fire.

“There are millions of people in this area who are at risk,” Kamps says. “Air born released of radioactive hazards, water born releases of radioactive hazards and that’s why it has to be dug up and disposed of in a more secure setting.”

He urged citizens to write their congressman or senator saying you want the Westlake nuclear waste taken away.

Kamps specializes in high-level waste management and transportation for Beyond Nuclear, an environmental company who’s goal is to raise awareness and limit the countries nuclear waste levels.

In March 2015, Beyond Nuclear board member Kay Drey and colleagues in St. Louis published a pamphlet entitled   "Remove the radioactive wastes NOW! Protect Metro St. Louis' water and air from West Lake Landfill's radioactive contamination!" It includes a map, showing that the radioactive wastes at West Lake Landfill are upstream of the drinking water intakes for North County and the City of St. Louis, on the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers. The pamphlet urges readers to "Please go to www.moenviron.org to sign a letter asking U.S. Senators Claire McCaskill and Roy Blunt and Congress members William Lacy Clay and Ann Wagner to work to transfer responsibility for West Lake’s radioactive wastes to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers."