Homes near St. Louis County creek are being tested after radioactive contamination found in yards
ST. LOUIS (AP) — A federal agency is examining soil beneath homes in a small suburban St. Louis subdivision to determine if residents are living atop Cold War era nuclear contamination. But activists say the testing needs to be far more widespread.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is taking soil samples at six properties in Florissant, Missouri, that sit near Coldwater Creek, a meandering waterway contaminated after nuclear waste was dumped there in the 1960s. The decision was made to look beneath the homes after contamination was found in the homes' backyards, but not the front yards, Jeremy Idleman of the Corps' St. Louis office said Tuesday.
Preliminary results could be available by the end of the week, Idleman said. If contamination is discovered beneath the homes, they will be remediated. But Idleman declined to speculate on what that would involve or if the homes might have to be demolished.
Corps officials do not believe any other homes in the area need to be tested, Idleman said. Activists with Just Moms STL, a group that for decades has advocated on behalf of people living near nuclear waste sites in the St Louis region, disagree.
“There's so many homes on the banks of this creek, for miles,” Karen Nickel, co-founder of Just Moms STL, said Tuesday. “What about the rest of those homes? I don't think we can say that we trust the Army Corps anymore.”
A news release from the Corps of Engineers said that when the Cades Cove subdivision was being built, a portion of the creek was covered in fill dirt. The Corps said the current testing will determine if that fill dirt is contaminated. The homes were built more than 30 years ago.
“We are deeply invested in ensuring the safety and wellbeing of the residents,” Phil Moser, St. Louis District program manager for the...