Nuclear waste has haunted St. Louis for decades, but cleanup isn't over
This story is part two of a two-part series that examines the effects of nuclear waste contamination in Coldwater Creek on the surrounding community in St. Louis, Missouri. Part one aired Tuesday, April 22 on "CBS Evening News."
Just 15 miles away from St. Louis' Gateway Arch, nuclear waste was stored for decades. Coldwater Creek ran right by the storage site, and Linda Morice lived near the waterway for years.
"It was all top secret," Morice said. "There was a deposit site where the processes and waste of the Manhattan Project had been stored, that is to say dumped, in the open or put in barrels that rusted."
Eventually, Morice's mother, father and brother would all die of lymphoma.
Starting in 1942, roughly one ton of pure uranium was produced per day in downtown St. Louis. It was then shipped to labs across the country for the top secret Manhattan Project that created the first nuclear bomb.
"I think there are people to this day who don't know the story," Morice said.
It wasn't until 1989 — 43 years after the waste was first dumped — that the Environmental Protection Agency classified the area as hazardous. Officials said it was dangerously contaminated and ordered a government cleanup.
But by that time, more than 60,000 people lived within just one mile of the creek, including Christen Commuso.
"I had to have a total hysterectomy. I've been diagnosed with thyroid cancer. They found a new tumor on my remaining adrenal gland," said Commuso, policy director for the Missouri Coalition for the Environment.
She's been pushing for the remaining waste to be removed for more than 12 years.
"I was quite literally laying in my hospital bed. I promised myself that I was gonna get better and do something about it," Commuso said.
The Army Corps of Engineers has been in charge of the cleanup since 1997. An early project manager estimated it would take at least eight years to finish. But now, their best estimate is 2038.
"There is a low level radioactive material there, and we're gonna remove it. It doesn't matter if it's low or high, we're going to remove it," said Col. Andy Pannier, who leads the St. Louis cleanup site.
Pannier said the radioactive material is located in "small pockets at random locations along the creek." But the corps' own maps show some of those pockets of waste are near schools, cemeteries and even under people's homes.
"St. Louisans are being chronically exposed to this every day of their lives," Commuso said.
Last year, Commuso and the Washington University Environmental Law Clinic analyzed the corps' cleanup plans. Not only are they concerned about the slow pace, they say the corps is leaving behind nearly three times more radioactive isotopes, or nuclear byproducts, than the Department of Energy deems safe.
One of those byproducts is thorium-230, Commuso said, which releases alpha particles as it decays.
Alpha emitters aren't typically harmful to external skin. However, when they are inhaled, ingested or get into the body through a cut, they can damage sensitive living tissues, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.
"Once it's in your body, it will continue to fire for the rest of your life," Commuso said.
While radiation is known to cause cancer, experts say they can't pin down the specific cause of the disease in a given patient.
But a 2019 study from the Department of Health and Human Services found that people who lived and played near Coldwater Creek from the 1960s to 1990s "could be at an increased risk of developing lung cancer, bone cancer or leukemia."
The Army Corps of Engineers told CBS News their cleanup plans are safe, but the EPA wasn't convinced. In 2020, EPA scientists asked the corps for specific data on the contamination, but the corps did not respond to those requests, CBS News found.
"Everybody has been touched by this history. I feel it's a responsibility of mine now that I know this information. I can't just sit on it," Commuso said.
The corps has promised an update on the contamination in four months, when it is set to publish its latest five-year review. But while the people in the community wait for the threat to be dealt with, the creek continues to flow.In response to CBS News' reporting, Republican Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri, who has been advocating for residents of North St. Louis County, said, "For decades now, Missourians across the St. Louis region have been poisoned by radioactive waste that the federal government dumped in their backyards. First our government lied about the toxins, and then it left Missourians to deal with the health hazards they caused. It's time for the government to clean up its mess and compensate those, like Christen Commuso, who've borne the burden of its negligence."
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