nuclear-news

Still secret: where are the radioactive hot spots near Coldwater Creek, st Louis County?

New nuclear hot spots near Coldwater Creek still a secret , St Louis Post Dispatch, 10 Dec 15   By Blythe Bernhard  It’s too early to name the seven new radioactive hot spots found near Coldwater Creek in north St. Louis County, federal officials said Wednesday. “We have contacted the owners (of the properties) but are not yet ready to release the locations until we are sure what we’ve found,” Bruce Munholand, a manager for the Army Corps of Engineers nuclear cleanup program, said at a community meeting at the Florissant civic center.

About 300 people attended the meeting, many with cancers and other health issues they believe could be linked to the creek. Earlier this year, corps officials announced that radiological contamination had been discovered at St. Cin Park, St. Louis Archdiocese’s St. Ferdinand Cemetery and five residential backyards along Palm Drive in Hazelwood and in Duchesne Park in Florissant.

Close to 10,000 soil samples have been collected and tested from the creek, its banks and the surrounding flood plain. Recent testing turned up additional radiological contamination at three residential and four commercial properties, Munholand said earlier this week. Businesses in the area currently being tested between Frost Avenue to the St. Denis Street bridge include Schnucks, Walgreens and Dierbergs on North Lindbergh…..

Samantha Meyer of Lake Saint Louis came to the meeting because she believes the leukemia she developed as an infant could be linked to living near the creek at the time.

“With a room full of sick people, it’s not a coincidence,” said Meyer, 17.

The federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry will start a study next year of a potential link between the creek’s contamination and cancer cases in the area. Missouri health officials had asked for federal assistance after a state report in 2014 showed high rates of leukemia, breast, colon and other cancers in the areas surrounding the creek. Current and former residents have taken their own surveys and found unusual numbers and types of diseases, including 48 cases of rare appendix cancers in the area.

Late next year the testing of the creek is expected to move to the area between the St. Denis Street bridge and Old Halls Ferry Road, and then onto the Missouri River. It could be another decade before the entire creek is cleared, officials said.

Jacob Barker of the Post-Dispatch contributed to this report. http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/metro/new-nuclear-hot-spots-near-coldwater-creek-still-a-secret/article_f215445d-ebc4-51ec-8f99-bd13f4f31bd2.html

December 11, 2015 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | environment, USA