Dive Brief:
- The U.S. EPA reached a new agreement with stakeholders to accelerate the cleanup of the West Lake Landfill, a site near St. Louis, Missouri, owned by a Republic Services subsidiary, by more than a year.
- The 200-acre site is a former quarry and landfill. Beginning in 1973, radiologically contaminated material was dumped at the facility. It was placed on the EPA’s Superfund list in 1990, indicating it was in need of cleanup.
- Missouri's Department of Natural Resources and Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), have drawn increasing attention to the site's cleanup needs, and convinced EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin to visit the site in March. Now, excavation work could begin as soon as late 2027.
Dive Insight:
The West Lake Landfill site has been the subject of litigation for years amid a protracted cleanup process. The site has also been drawn into multiple legal disputes, including a case brought by nearby residents and by by Republic.
Hawley pressed Zeldin to visit the site during the EPA administrator's confirmation process. Zeldin and Hawley visited the site together in March, following which Hawley said: "The government caused this mess. The government lied about it. Now the government needs to clean it up."
In a post on X, the senator said Monday's announcement represented "tremendous progress" since Zeldin first visited the site.
In the updated cleanup plan, EPA will handle more confirmation sampling of the site earlier. It will also allow responsible parties at the site to begin construction before submitting all post-remediation plans. Changes will mean a remedial action contractor could be hired by February 2027, rather than July 2027. In the biggest change, site preparation and mobilization of the responsible parties is projected to occur in September 2027 rather than May 2029.
The EPA is still actively negotiating a consent decree with the parties, which it hopes to reach by the time a remedial design plan is approved next year. In addition to the Republic Services subsidiary, Cotter Corp. and the U.S. Department of Energy are also responsible parties for the site.
“Meeting and speaking with the St. Louis community members who have long endured radioactive waste in their community was beyond moving,” Zeldin said in a statement Monday. “This moment requires an unprecedented effort to clean up the West Lake Landfill and impacted sites in the area. I look forward to partnering with Senator Josh Hawley to achieve remarkable and urgent progress.”
Hawley had also urged EPA to assume oversight of the Bridgeton Landfill, in line with a request from the Missouri Department of Natural Resources. That site, also controlled by a Republic Services subsidiary, has dealt with a subsurface smoldering event since 2010. Regulators have become increasingly concerned that it too has nuclear waste that could be affected by the event.
The EPA did not respond to a question on the status of that request. A Republic spokesperson said: "Bridgeton Landfill will continue to work with EPA on designing an effective plan for remediating the site."
The EPA noted in its release that it expects remediation of the West Lake Landfill site to be complete by 2038.
