EPA Gina McCarthy Wrong Yet Again

Terra Johnson Douglas-February 13 at 6:44pm  posted in West Lake Landfill.

Just Moms STL, non-profit group formed to unite & organize against a harmful Superfund radioactive waste site from the Manhattan Project in their Community

Terra Johnson Douglas wrote Greg Wingard in Washington State 

asking him to support our bill and contact his contact his Representative to support the bill. I also told him how 

Gina McCarthy refused to meet with the Moms.

This was his response.

"Not surprised on Gina McCarthy. My understanding is that prior to her being the Administer, she worked on issues related to radiation for the agency, and was the one involved in making the call to shut down monitoring radiation on the west coast of the United States, a few months into the Fukushima accident.

I wrote our Region X, EPA Administer Dennis McClearan to protest this decision and was told by regional staff that the amount of available dilution in the Pacific Ocean was so great that it would not be possible to measure any increase in radiation over the existing background. 

My response was that they were either ignoring, or refusing to consider the role of preferential pathways, including currents and materials such as plastic particulates that would tend to concentrate the radiation and keep it suspended in the water column rather than it falling out into the sediment (meaning it would tend to travel rather than settle). They disagreed.

Recent information from independent sampling, carried out by Woods Hole Institute researchers has shown that radiation off the coast of Washington has now increased three to four-fold over the previous background levels, with the fingerprint of isotopes demonstrating that Fukushima is the only possible source for the increase."

What on Earth is Going on at  West Lake Landfill?

When odors from the neighboring Bridgeton Landfill became so intense, residents began making calls. What they unearthed was shocking! They learned that the adjacent West Lake Landfill houses massive amounts of illegally dumped nuclear weapons waste from the Manhattan Project, the U.S. – the secret U.S. military program created in 1942 to develop the atomic bomb.

West Lake story: An underground fire, radioactive waste, and governmental failure

West Lake story: An underground fire, radioactive waste, and governmental failure: On July 16, 1973, 28 years to the day after the first nuclear weapon was exploded at Alamogordo, New Mexico, a line of dump trucks containing the detritus from the uranium used to make plutonium for the test bomb showed up at the West Lake landfill in Bridgeton, Missouri. Assuming the trucks were loaded with clean fill, the landfill superintendent waved them through without charging a dumping fee.

Manhattan Project Nuclear Waste Shipping Container 

A truck driver said later that he and others used the black stuff in their home gardens.

Previously Undisclosed Radioactive Dump Site Location in the StLouis Region

By October several thousand shipments were illegally dumped at the landfill in north St Louis

Green had worked from 1946 until about 1958 for several small trucking companies that hauled materials for Mallinckrodt Chemical Works in north St. Louis. The company processed uranium for the federal government under contract to the Atomic Energy Commission.

Photo added by Scotty

Supporting Article: http://blog.mohempenergy.org/2016/01/manhattan-project-nuclear-waste.html


Back to the Article  West Lake story: An underground fire, radioactive waste, and governmental failure

  It’s not far-fetched to conclude that there are parallels between the West Lake waste problem—created and exacerbated by decades of negligence and denial by the US nuclear weapons program and the agencies responsible for protecting people from its harmful legacy—and the disaster in Flint, Michigan, where citizens have been poisoned by lead-laced drinking water, and their public officials have been slow to respond. In fact, on January 27, the editorial board of the St. Louis Post Dispatch explicitly pointed out those parallels, concluding that “too often, people without power and clout don’t count with government officials. A parallel situation exists here with Bridgeton’s West Lake landfill... After seeing what happened in Flint, it comes as no surprise that they doubt government’s will to find a permanent solution.”

Responsibility for the radioactive legacy in north St. Louis County rests squarely on the US government, because the problem there was born of production of the first nuclear weapons. At minimum, the first order of business should be for the Corps of Engineers to remove as much of the West Lake landfill wastes as possible and contain the rest, to protect nearby communities and the drinking water they draw from the Missouri River.

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Phytromediation a financial vaible option to remove Heavy Metals

Exerts from a EPA Study specifically state that the

 

Hemp for Income and Soil Remediation of Nuclear Waste in Bridgeton Missouri and the Cold Water Creek area of the St. Louis Region 

is  a viable and financially proven way to remove the heavy metal toxins from the soil at Bridgeton Landfill and Coldwater creek areas of the StLouis Region.

Economic Considerations Phytoremediation EPA Study Guide

Phytoextraction Financial Costs using Phytoremediation

Phytromediation Is Financially Sound as Interim Solution

$600,000 to $100,000 cost estimate 1 acre soil compared to $400,000 excavation and storage Phytoremediation is less expensive

Phytoremediation of Plant System Example above and below ground

Description of Hemp Stalk and Root System

supplied by Canadian Hemp Industry

Hemp is an annual and a member of the Cannabaceae family which consists of two accepted genera, Cannabis (hemp) and  Humulus (hops).  Industrial hemp is a distinct crop type of the plant species Cannabis sativa L.. Industrial hemp is distinguished from narcotic hemp by having a THC (delta - 9 - Tetrahydracannabinol) level less than 0.3%.  

Other characteristics typical of hemp are 

slender stems, 

plant height ranging from four to fifteen feet and a 

stem diameter from 1/4" to 3/4". 

The innermost layer of the stem is called the pith. 

It is surrounded by a woody material known as hurd. 

Outside of this layer is the growing tissue which develops into hurd on the inside and bast fibers on the outside.

Stem Cross Section

The amount of stem branching is inversely related to plant density, ie lower plant densities promote more branching.  The leaves are of a palmate type and each leaf has seven to eleven leaflets with serrated edges. 

The root system generally consists of a dominant taproot and some lateral roots. Soil type will affect which root type will be more developed. For example, in poorer soils the lateral roots will be more developed and the taproot will be short.

Hemp Root

Industrial hemp exhibits a dual response to day length. Increasing day length during the first two to three months promotes more vigorous vegetative growth. Later in the season, the plants require shorter day length to trigger flowering and maturation.