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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Tracking Nuclear Radiation StLouis Missouri

 Conclusions This paper reports radionuclide analyses of the 287 surface soil, dust and sediment samples, collected to test whether significant, off-site dispersal of radionuclides has occurred from the West Lake Landfill site in Bridgeton, MO.

A radionuclide (radioactive nuclide, radioisotope or radioactive isotope) is an atom that has excess nuclear energy, making it unstable. Wiki

Levels of 210Pb in key samples were well above background activities, and were significantly out of secular equilibrium with other members of the uranium decay chain. This is strong evidence that the 210Pb originated by decay of short-lived, fugitive radon gas that escaped the landfill.

The use of the unsupported 210Pb marker was an important element of our analysis, allowing the identification of waste-impacted areas. 210Pb activities were highest in areas known to be contaminated with wastes from the Mallinckrodt uranium processing wastes. 

Radon soil headspace test and in-situ pore-volume radon activities for soil samples were widely variable, with too few samples available to directly relate these activities to the presence of uranium or uranium processing wastes in soils and sediments.

Some individual samples had very high ratios of radon in headspace to soil masses. Given the importance of radon releases from soils to air as a vector for public exposure to radioactivity, increasing the density and frequency of radon measurements around the West Lake Landfill should be an important priority. 

If the West Lake Landfill fire were to intrude upon areas with buried uraniumprocessing wastes, radon emissions may increase further. 

Isotopes of uranium and thorium reach high levels in sediments around Coldwater Creek. More disturbingly, indoor dusts in homes adjacent to Coldwater Creek have potentially higher levels of uranium and thorium than those found in sediments at known disposal sites. 

After reviewing the 287 environmental sample results, the most effective method for tracking uranium-processing wastes was to monitor unsupported 210Pb, as well as uranium and thorium in sediments and house dusts.

abstract 

Analysis of 287 soil, sediment and house dust samples collected in a 200 km2 -zone in northern St. Louis County, Missouri, establish that offsite migration of radiological contaminants from Manhattan Projectera uranium processing wastes has occurred in this populated area. 

Specifically, 48% of samples (111 of a subset of 229 soils and sediments tested) had 210Pb concentrations above the risk-based soil cleanup limits for residential farming established by the US Department of Energy at the Fernald, OH, uranium plant, which handled and stored the same concentrated Manhattan Project-era wastes; the geographical distribution of the exceedances are consistent with water and radon gas releases from a landfill and related sites used to store and dispose of legacy uranium wastes; and offsite soil and house dust samples proximal to the landfill showed distinctive secular disequilibrium among uranium and its progeny indicative of uranium ore processing wastes. 

The secular disequilibrium of uranium progeny in the environment provides an important method for distinguishing natural uranium from industrial uranium wastes. In this study, the detection of unsupported 210Pb beyond expected atmospheric deposition rates is examined as a possible indicator of excessive radon emissions from buried uranium and radium containing wastes.

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Phytoremediation Bridgeton Landfill Radio Interview Lonnie Clark

I was honored to share the Phytoremediation project with the listeners of The Age of Fission with Lonnie Clark.

This was my first every Radio Interview I was a little nervous, thankfully Ms Clark made the interview easy-peasy who mentioned all the information that I have been submitting to Republic Services, EPA Superfund, MO Government Officials, and anyone else who could lend the people being affected by the nuclear radiation of the Bridgeton and Westlake Landfills.

		Lonnie Clark December 31 at 10:23am
I am looking for people who are interested in sharing your stories, your information, or whatever else you believe is pertinent on my radio show, The Age of Fission on ucy.tv/aof. I am highlighting the plight of the people of St. Louis every Monday on my radio show from 8 am - 9 am pst(that is 10 am - 11 am your time). My idea is to interview average citizens and the activists from your community so that we can get the word out about the harm that is being done to the residents living near Coldwater Creek and the West Lake Landfill. Please call me (and yes, even this holiday weekend, the only time I will be unavailable will be on Friday after3pm (your time). Today, Sat, Sun, plesae give me a call or Skype or PM on FB. My info: Lonnie Clark The Age of Fission Radio Show Skype: lonnie.clark7 email: nutzforart@gmail.com UCY.TV :: Age of Fission ucy.tv UCY.TV

Human Radiation Experiments In Bridgeton MO just like CincinnatiOH

Are the People and Public who are being exposed to the Nuclear Radiation in Bridgeton MO part of a Human Experiment just like what happened in Cincinnati OH long ago?  

The similarities sound eerily familiar the first one is being poor.  The second one is how the area residents are treated ie: Ferguson.  Too many similarities for me not to connect the Dots.  

Cincinnati Radiation Experiment

 Cancer patients (mostly Negroes of below-average intelligence who were charity patients) during 1960-72 in Cincinnati were exposed to large doses of whole body radiation as part of an experiment sponsored by the U.S. military.

Cincinnati radiation experiments

August 30, 2011FV

Cancer patients (mostly Negroes of below-average intelligence who were charity patients) during 1960-72 in Cincinnati were exposed to large doses of whole body radiation as part of an experiment sponsored by the U.S. military. None of the subjects gave informed consent, they thought they were receiving treatment for their cancer. Subjects experienced nausea and vomiting from acute radiation sickness, pain from burns on their bodies, and some died prematurely as result of radiation exposure. In re Cincinnati Radiation Litigation, 874 F.Supp. 796 (S.D.Ohio 1995). On 5 May 1999, a settlement was announced in which the defendants paid US$ 5.4×106, but defendants admitted no wrongdoing.

government-sponsored – “…What happened here is one of the worst things this government has ever done to its citizens in secret,” Dr. Egilman said. Martha Stephens, now an emeritus professor of English at the University of Cincinnati, helped bring the research to light in the early 1970s and wrote a book about it. She said documents showed that many of the patients had received radiation doses that reduced their white blood cell counts to nearly nothing. At one time, Dr. Saenger said the deaths of eight patients had been caused by radiation, but later he said that none had been caused by it. In 1994, when government-sponsored radiation experiments that had been conducted during the cold war attracted renewed attention, the Cincinnati study came under new scrutiny, and a graduate student working with Professor Stephens began tracking down the families of the patients…” (Eugene Saenger,Controversial Doctor, Dies at 90)

the effect full-body radiation exposure – “…Dr. Stephens began pestering administrators at the medical school for information about the radiation experiments. The more she learned, the more frightened she became. The more frightened, the more she dug. She spent much of 1971 and 1972 digging. She discovered the aim of the secret study was to determine the effect full-body radiation exposure, such as from a nuclear blast, would have on soldiers in combat. But the cancer patients who were subjected to the experiment were not told they were being exposed to deadly doses of radiation. Their doctors told them they were being treated to relieve the pain of their cancers. “As a person teaching at a public university, I wanted to earn my pay. I felt the citizens of the state who were paying my salary wanted me to defend their interest against what was happening on my campus,” she says. “If Ohio citizens were being abused on my campus, I needed to make it known and not wait for outsiders to tell us we were not treating people right…” (Book revisits UC radiation experiments).

consent forms – “…Throughout most of the study, consent forms were not signed. Later, when consent forms were used, many victims claimed they had been duped or had their signatures forged. According to a report by a University of Cincinnati Faculty Committee sent to the Pentagon, “physicians, nurses, technicians, and ward personnel were instructed not to discuss post-irradiation symptoms or reactions with the patients” which included “the risk of death from bone marrow failure within 40 days.” The “treatment” received by UC “patients” is hardly an anomaly. Radiation research was systematic and widespread; the implications well discussed and understood. In fact the national security archives now has reams of declassified documents on various human radiation experiments often conducted on unwitting subjects by numerous government departments. Nor were the doctors involved unclear as to what they were doing. In the 1950s, Shields Warren, then director of the Atomic Energy Commission’s Division of Biology and Medicine, received a memo from Joseph Hamilton— the scientist in charge of radiation experiments at the University of California— advising that large primates be used instead of humans in the upcoming studies on radiation’s cognitive effects, of which Dr. Saenger’s study was one. The memo explained that the use of humans could leave the AEC open “to considerable criticism,” as the experiments had “a little of the Buchenwald touch.” Disregarding this advice, the experiments continued as planned, coast-to-coast, with varying degrees of deadliness. In the early 1980s Dr. David Egilman and Geoffrey Sea— health consultants for the Oil, Chemical, and Atomic Workers Union and the Federal Atomic Traders and Labor Council— investigated experiments conducted on nuclear workers and uncovered more crimes committed by the University of Cincinnati hospital. This time it was “body snatching…” (American Mengele: Human Radiation Experiments)

Human radiation experiments – Since the discovery of ionizing radiation, a number of human radiation experiments have been performed to understand the effects of ionizing radiation and radioactive contamination on the human body, specifically with the element plutonium. On January 15, 1994, President Bill Clinton formed the Advisory Committee on Human Radiation Experiments (ACHRE), chaired by Ruth Faden of the Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics. The committee was created to investigate and report the use of human beings as test subjects in experiments involving the effects of ionizing radiation in federally funded research. The committee discovered the causes of the experiments, and reasons why the proper oversight did not exist, and made several recommendations to prevent future occurrences of similar events (Wikepedia).

RELATED READING:

• Official Web-site: xxx
• Nonconsensual Medical Experiments on Human Beings
• More Victims of Experiments Go to Bioethics Panel
• Cincinnati Radiation Experiments
• Cold War Radiation Test on Humans To Undergo a Congressional Review
• Report Research on Human Radiations Experiment Records 1944 – 1994
• People killed in radiation experiments in University of Cincinnati medical Centre 1961-71
• Roadmap to the Project
• Stop the Experimentation: An Open Letter
• The Treatment: The Story of Those Who Died in the Cincinnati Radiation Tests (Video)
• radiation and human radiation experiments
• Documentary on Early U.S. Radiation Experiments on Black Children (Video)

Image Via Facebook Westlake Landfill Group

The Westlake Landfill group has been formed by concerned residents to inform and keep the public updated about the radioactive waste in the West Lake Landfill in Bridgeton, Mo 

Please like us at Just Moms STL on facebook
Website: www.stlradwastelegacy.com

https://www.facebook.com/groups/508327822519437/

Industrial Hemp Phytoremediation Solution Bridgeton Landfill

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J. Nayer Hardin

• Founder/Conductor at Computer Underground Railroad Ent.

 ·269 followers

 · 9 hrs · Twitter · 

Hemp is a proven solution to our nuclear crisis. Phytoremediation,‪#‎3dprinting‬ hemp radiation reducing buildings...

Scotty on Twitter

“@cureworks https://t.co/VKvyrry8Dl Hemp for Income and Soil Remediation of Nuclear Waste in Bridgeton Missouri”

TWITTER.COM/STLHANDYMAN/ST…

1. First photo is Photo of North Quarry Enhancement Plan work - Bridgeton Landfill, Dec. 2, 2015.

Photo of North Quarry Enhancement Plan work - Bridgeton Landfill, Dec. 2, 2015

a perfect location to grow Industrial Hemp for phytoremediation..

The above photo from the Bridgeton Landfill is a perfect location to grow Industrial Hemp. Using in a technique called Phytoremediation

 to naturally by in a process

known as Phytoextraction. The nuclear

and heavy metal toxins present in the area.

These heavy metal minerals are consumed

and or redistributed to other locations in the

plant.

When Industrial Hemp is grown for phytoremediation

through phytoextraction the: leaves on the plant will

hold and store this heavy metals.  While the seeds

can be a source for the production of Biodiesel.

There are many ways of then safely and responsibly recycling the contaminated materials, that are not

harmful to the environment.

Today is the Big Day-Cleantech Open Submission

Cleantech Open-Find Fund Foster the most promising cleantech startups on the Planet

The contact with Cleantech Open has referred 

Hemp for Income and Soil Remediation of Nuclear Waste in Bridgeton Missouri and the Cold Water Creek area of the St. Louis Region to the Regional Director of the Midwest Central Region for consideration and inclusion into the next round of clean energy, environmental, and energy conservation startups.

Cleantech Open Regions of the USA

Here is a list of the nuclear toxins that are causing distress, death, and numerous health issues to the Residents of Bridgeton, Cold Water Creek, and anyone downstream in the St Louis Region.

Nuclear Waste Toxin Exposure List of Bridgeton and Cold Water Creek Residents

Using Nature in the Phytoremediation of Soil

Phytoremedation of soil could be a natural way to use Industrial Hemp Plants to clean the soil at the Bridgeton Landfill and Cold Water Creek areas.

The following info was provided by

• Paulo J.C. Favas, João Pratas, Mayank Varun, Rohan D’Souza and
• Manoj S. Paul (2014). Phytoremediation of Soils Contaminated with Metals and Metalloids at Mining Areas: Potential of Native Flora, Environmental Risk Assessment of Soil Contamination, Dr. Maria C. Hernandez Soriano (Ed.), ISBN: 978-953-51-1235-8, InTech, DOI: 10.5772/57469. Available from: http://www.intechopen.com/books/environmental-risk-assessment-of-soil-contamination/phytoremediation-of-soils-contaminated-with-metals-and-metalloids-at-mining-areas-potential-of-nativ

 Phytoremediation of Soils Contaminated with Metals and Metalloids at Mining Areas: Potential of Native Flora

1. Introduction

2. Phytoremediation strategies

3. Advantages and limitations of phytoremediation

4. Phytoextraction and phytostabilization

5. Phytoremediation potential of native flora of contaminated soils

5.1. Phytoremediation potencial of native flora of contaminated soils in Portugal

5.1.1. Native flora of old mining areas

5.1.1.1. Tin/tungsten mines

5.1.1.2. Copper mines

5.1.1.3. Lead mines

5.1.1.4. Uranium mines

5.1.1.5. Chromium mines (Serpentine soils)

6. Conclusion

7. Acknowledgements

A fellow blogger and FB connection offered this on Phytoremediation : 

• 
  J. Nayer Hardin Phytoremediate in hemp, thistle, sunflowers & mushrooms
  3d print entombment for both the plants and waste
  Medical marijuana / cannabis & good nutrition for the health issues
  Shift to clean / free energies
  3d print radiation reducing structures and shells over existing structures
  
  I have a few pages up on the subject. link