Pruitt says EPA will have a decision on West Lake cleanup in January

Dec. 07--WASHINGTON -- The Environmental Protection Administration will announce in January its plan to clean up the West Lake Landfill Superfund site in Bridgeton, administrator Scott Pruitt said Thursday.

Pruitt made the promise in a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee hearing chaired by Rep. John Shimkus, R-Collinsville. Pruitt said the site, which has been on the agency's Superfund cleanup list since 1990, has languished too long, and that his anticipated announcement is part of the Trump administration's efforts to address a backlog of environmental issues left by the previous administration of Barack Obama.

"We should be able to announce a decision in the month of January," Pruitt said. "There are proposals that I am looking at this month to make a decision on West Lake. It has been a long time coming, specifically 27 years. It is a very important issue for the people of St. Louis."

He added that "it has taken the agency 27 years to make a decision on whether to excavate or cap the site. That is unacceptable."

EPA could do everything from trying to cap the site, which contains waste from the World War II nuclear weapons development, to removing potentially toxic materials from it. The former would be an especially controversial plan among nearby residents, who have pushed for stronger remediation by the government and responsible private parties.

The Obama administration had promised a decision by the end of 2016, but that did not happen. Pruitt, a controversial appointment of President Donald Trump, has been in office 10 months, and in that time the EPA has held further listening and information sessions with residents who live near the site.

West Lake holds both municipal garbage from the 1950s co-mingled with about 8,200 tons of leached barium sulfate left over from the Manhattan Project, the World War II effort to create a nuclear weapon. That nuclear waste was added to 38,000 tons of soil to cover the trash.

Residents who live nearby have complained of health problems from contamination.

Dawn Chapman, co-founder of Just Moms STL, a volunteer group focused on cleanup of the landfill, said she believes that Pruitt would follow through after years of missed deadlines under Obama.

But she cautioned that if it appears the EPA is rushing to cap the site just to get the decision out of the way, Pruitt would be "shooting himself in the foot" because that option is widely opposed.

"I do know for certain that our congressional offices -- bipartisan, Democrat and Republican -- have told him, 'Don't you cap this -- don't do it,' " Chapman said.

But Chapman also had praise for the new administrator for taking a personal interest in West Lake.

"I think he has been pretty outspoken on our site, specifically, and I think that we can feel, the community here, can feel a more active EPA ... and more involvement, frankly more transparency and honesty than we have in ... the five years that I have been doing this," she said.

Shimkus also said he was not sure what direction Pruitt was leaning. But Shimkus said Pruitt "has taken a personal interest in (West Lake) to the point that he is angrier at the EPA than at the citizens that are riled up about it. He thinks the citizens are justified, but having said that, he is on record and we will see what is happening in January."

Pruitt's announcement came before a divided subcommittee, with Democrats complaining that the EPA under Pruitt's guidance has ignored scientists while allowing industry and business too much sway in the regulations it lives under, peeled back Obama administration regulations to protect the environment, and that Pruitt has been too secretive in performing the job.

Pruitt "has ignored the advice and conclusions of his own scientific staff on numerous occasions," Rep. Frank Pallone, D-N.J., said.

But Pruitt pushed back hard, saying that the EPA under his tutelage has returned to the rule of law by pushing back controversial Obama actions, such as the "Waters of the USA" initiative extending EPA oversight of small bodies of water, long a target of Republicans.

Pruitt also said he's tried to forge better relationships with states, and that the EPA as accelerated enactment of federal laws, such as the rewrite of federal chemical regulations that Shimkus helped shepherd through the last Congress.

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