Dive Brief:
- Today, the Just Moms STL group is planning to present Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon with a petition with 5,000 signatures, calling for a state of emergency and federal help to put out the underground fire at the Bridgeton Landfill near St. Louis, which has been burning since 2010.
- A report released by Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster in September concluded that the fire could reach the adjacent West Lake Landfill — which contains radioactive waste — in three to six months.
- Just Moms member Dawn Chapman told CBS, "I don’t think that (Nixon) needs to wait for an emergency. I think he can call a preemptive one and get the federal resources in right now to prevent it from happening." CBS reported that St. Louis County released an 11-page disaster plan that calls for evacuations if the fire hits the nuclear waste. Reports warn that a disaster would most likely occur with little-to-no warning.
Dive Insight:
Attorney General Chris Koster sued Bridgeton Landfill owner Republic Services in 2013, and Republic has spent more than $100 million to try to control the fire by capping the landfill, building a leachate treatment plant, and installing temperature monitors, cooling wells and gas extraction equipment. A trial is scheduled for March 2016.
Area lawmakers and the state Department of Natural Resources have been calling for action on the problem for a long time. However, Republic says the fire is not spreading.
There are 3 million people in the St. Louis metropolitan area, and they are growing desperate.
“You’ve got school teachers over here at the high school and Rose Acres (Elementary School in Maryland Heights, MO) saying, 'We’re scared. We’re responsible to take care of all these kids, and we don’t know what to do, we’re not being told how to do that.' You've got people reporting illnesses saying, 'I’m sick, this has destroyed my family,'" Chapman said.
The County's disaster plan would go into effect under the direction of the fire department, if the fire were to reach West Lake Landfill. Mass media and text messages would be used to alert the public of the emergency, and some residents would be encouraged to evacuate. Others would be told to stay in their homes and take shelter.
