On December 9, 2021, Coldwater Creek is flowing with water behind a row of houses at Belcroft Drive and Old Halls Ferry Road in St. Louis County, Missouri. An elementary school located in Coldwater Creek’s flood plain and contaminated by nuclear waste from WWII weapon development has been confirmed to have considerable radioactive contamination by environmental assessment specialists. AP Photo by Christian Gooden hide caption
switch to caption Author: Christian Gooden On December 9, 2021, Coldwater Creek is flowing with water behind a row of houses at Belcroft Drive and Old Halls Ferry Road in St. Louis County, Missouri. An elementary school located in Coldwater Creek’s flood plain and contaminated by nuclear waste from WWII weapon development has been confirmed to have considerable radioactive contamination by environmental assessment specialists.
Author: Christian Gooden MO. FLORISSANT — According to a recent assessment by environmental investigative consultants, there is significant radioactive contamination at an elementary school in a suburb of St. Louis where nuclear bombs were manufactured during World War II.
Concerns concerning pollution at Jana Elementary School in the Hazelwood School District in Florissant were substantiated by the research by Boston Chemical Data Corp., which had been raised by an earlier Army Corps of Engineers assessment.
According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the latest study is based on samples that were collected from the school in August. Boston Chemical remained mum over who or what ordered and paid for the report.
Ashley Bernaugh, president of the Jana parent-teacher association and mother of a student at the institution, admitted, “I was heartbroken.” It seems so corny, but it really does make you want to stop breathing.
The school is located in the Coldwater Creek flood plain, which was contaminated by radioactive waste from the construction of wartime weapons. The waste was deposited in locations close to the Missouri River and the St. Louis Lambert International Airport. For more over 20 years, the Corps has been cleaning up the creek.
However, the levels of contamination were substantially lower in the Corps’ report, and no samples were taken within 300 feet of the school. Samples from Jana’s library, kitchen, classes, fields, and playgrounds were used in the most current report.
Lead-210, polonium, radium, and other radioactive isotopes were present at levels that were “far in excess” of what Boston Chemical had anticipated. The school’s interior dust samples were discovered to be polluted.
The paper warned that swallowing or inhaling these radioactive substances could result in serious harm.
According to the assessment, “a considerable remedial program will be needed to bring circumstances at the school in line with expectations.”
The new study is anticipated to take center stage at the Hazelwood school board meeting on Tuesday. In a statement, the district stated that it will speak with its lawyers and specialists to decide the next course of action.
Safety for our staff and children is unquestionably our first priority, the board’s president Betsy Rachel stated on Saturday.
Following the receipt of a copy via a Freedom of Information Act request, Christen Commuso with the Missouri Coalition for the Environment presented the findings of the Corps’ report to the school board in June.
She declared, “I wouldn’t want my child attending this school.” “These poisons have a cumulative effect.”
