BRIDGETON, Mo. – The EPA is testing sites around the West Lake Landfill Superfund in Bridgeton in search of any contaminated soil.
“What we’re really doing is making sure our sampling includes testing for that sentiment that could have been running off the site in the 1970s and 1980s. We’re also testing the stuff above that and up to the surface,” Tom Mahler, remedial project manager, said.
Mahler says they are testing five specific locations, looking for radioactive soil. There are a number of reasons why the EPA has chosen to test at these specific locations.
“To the east of area one, that is one of the places where the RAD material was placed when it was brought to the site in 1973,” he said. “This was an area that received contamination because it eroded off of the actual landfill.”
The goal of their testing is to find every area possible that contains contaminated soil. One way they’re doing this is by collecting samples between two and five feet below the surface.
“One of the foundations to a successful design is going to be thoroughly investigated where the contamination is and making sure the data that we collect is precise. So that we can make sure that remedy addresses wherever the contamination is and all of it,” Mahler said.
