The planet Earth has enough problems with worrying about a smoldering landfill threatening nuclear waste. But that is exactly the worry of people in Missouri now that trash is burning just 1,200 feet from a landfill of nuclear material dating back to the Manhattan Project of the 1940s..
This is a true story.
According to known facts: A layer of trash has been burning below the surface of the Bridgeton Landfill since 2010. According to the AP, the burning was fueled by an underground reaction of decomposing waste. Scientists and experts are worried that the burning material could reach the West Lake Landfill–the home of radioactive material..
One thought would be, if the fire got close, to make a barrier of soil between both landfills..
But maybe there’s nothing to see here..?
The EPA’s main goal appears not to be factually considering what is happening near St. Louis, but instead substantially trying to calm down residents.. trying to stop the fanning of flames.. trying to dispel rumors of doom..
There’s a fire burning in Bridgeton, Missouri. It’s invisible to area residents, buried deep beneath the ground in a North St. Louis County landfill. But the smoldering waste is an unavoidable presence in town, giving off a putrid odor that clouds the air miles away – an overwhelming stench described by one area woman as “rotten eggs mixed with skunk and fertilizer.” Residents report smelling it at K-12 school buses, a TGI Fridays and even the operating room of a local hospital. “It smells like dead bodies,” observes another local.
On a Saturday morning in March, one mile south of the landfill, several Bridgeton residents have gathered at a small home in a blue-collar subdivision called Spanish Village. Concerned citizens Karen Nickel and Dawn Chapman are here to answer questions posed by four of their neighbors. “How will I ever sell my house?” “Am I going to end up with cancer 20 years down the road?” “Is there even a solution?”
Even without the fire closing in on the nuclear dump, the other main problem as described by the ROLLING STONE article is that the smoking cloudy mixture rising into the air plain stinks. It’s annoying, it’s even beyond annoying, at some points with high amounts of benzene and hydrogen sulfide airing out…
Why isn’t anyone paying attention?
Why is the EPA seemingly just fine with all of this?
And why, with a fire burning exceptionally close to a former nuclear dump, isn’t this story getting front page status..?
We may never know answers to those whys. But we at least know the who, what, when, and where…
And for the record: The West Lake Landfill has 8,700 tons of nuclear waste.
Food for thought.
And maybe a little snippet of why the ‘why’ isn’t being talked about..
