By John Vibes
According to an emergency plan recently distributed by St. Louis County officials, a fire at the Bridgeton Landfill is now within 1,000 feet of a nuclear waste dump. The landfill fire has actually been burning for over 5 years, and they have been unable to contain it thus far.
There are clouds of smoke that have been billowing from the site, making the air in parts of St. Louis heavily polluted. In 2013, Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster sued Republic Services, the company responsible for the landfill, charging the company with neglecting the site and harming the local environment.
Last year, city officials became concerned that the fire may reach the nearby West Lake Landfill, which is littered with decades worth of nuclear waste from government projects and weapons manufacturing. Remnants from the Manhattan Project and the Cold War have been stuffed there for generations. The site has been under the control of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) since 1990, but they have not made any significant effort to clean up the waste.
Although the fire has been burning for over 5 years and the city began making evacuation plans last year, they didn’t tell the public until this past week, when they leaked the emergency plans to local news station KMOX.
St. Louis County EVACUATION INSTRUCTIONS when Bridgeton landfill fire reaches URANIUM & THORIUM. pic.twitter.com/aUe9yCVGWF
— MariaChappelleNadal (@MariaChappelleN) October 1, 2015
According to the emergency plan, if the fire reaches the nuclear waste site, “there is a potential for radioactive fallout to be released in the smoke plume and spread throughout the region. This event will most likely occur with little or no warning,” the plan notes, listing the municipalities directly affected as Bridgeton, Hazelwood, Maryland Heights, the Village of Champ and the City of St. Charles.”
County Executive Steve Stenger has promised that the emergency plan is “not an indication of any imminent danger,” but with a fire just 1000 feet away from a nuclear waste site, the danger does seem imminent for many of the city’s residents.
“It is [the] county government’s responsibility to protect the health, safety and well-being of all St. Louis County residents. None of this is meant to be alarmist, but you have to be prepared,” Stenger said in a statement.
However, this week Koster told the Associated Press that the fire is even closer to the contamination zone than the city officials have even estimated because the radiation extends beyond the walls of the site.
The emergency plan provides very basic options for people to either evacuate the city or stay sheltered in their houses. Aside from saying that nuclear contamination can spread through the area in plumes of smoke, there was little mention in the report about what they actually expect to happen. Also alarming, is the fact that while there is an evacuation plan, there has been no plan proposed to actually stop this, or clean the mess up. It seems that the local government and the EPA are just hoping for the best as the fire continues to spread.
John Vibes is an author, researcher and investigative journalist who takes a special interest in the counter-culture and the drug war. In addition to his writing at TheFreeThoughtProject.com and activist work, he organizes a number of large events including the Free Your Mind Conference, which features top caliber speakers and whistle-blowers from all over the world. You can contact him and stay connected to his work at his Facebook page. You can find his 65 chapter Book entitled “Alchemy of the Timeless Renaissance” at bookpatch.com.
WTF Why haven’t they brought in one of those fire maverick guys? This is INSANE and will spread all over the country you fools.
Actually with the prevailing winds the fallout will go for the most part to the east, look on a map to check the cities that will be involved.
Satanists who rule the world, do not care about our lives and our health. They just love wars, misery, distructions, illness…
OK…thanks for the 3 second scare. Now what are the facts? Is there a single investigative journalist out there other than these “wannabee” journalist that repeat useless information? Should we believe the government? No…that’s easy. So why believe this report?
Has anyone measured the movement of this fire vs. time? That would be easy to do with today’s technology. Why would we believe that the fire would continue into the nuclear waste site? Are there materials there that would burn? What about town meetings? Has anyone pulled any transcripts to understand this better? What was the result of the lawsuit filed by the AG in 2013? Surely there are mitigative measures in place, so what are they?
As far as St. Louis, why aren’t the folks there demanding answers and review of any technical reports? I suggest the affected areas begin a class action suit now. That is not unreasonable.
Gotta love how government creates these problem, and then act as if they are the saviors. Don’t be surprised if they don’t want to get rid if it by adding it to your drinking water. Just like fluoride.
Hoping for the best doesn’t cut it. You are bound to have excavating equipment. Dig a firebreak between the landfill and the nuclear waste. We don’t care how deep you have to dig. Just get off your backsides and get it done. This has more than just locally potentially catastrophic dangers. Everything east of the Mississippi could be contaminated because of your irresponsibility. What is wrong with you people?
Get. These illegals from invading ur nations
Do you really expect the agency that caused the mine disaster out west a few weeks ago to do anything about this especially since they have had 25 years to get started on the radioactive site and have done nothing?
The EPA is an unelected bureaucracy which is NOT accountable to the voters. Since they were appointed, and not elected, the public has no control over them. They do only what the top leaders of our country tell them to do!
When the government is involved, the first priority is to CYA. Second, you hope ignoring the problem will make it go away. If that fails, you lay the blame on others. Even when years down the road, when people start dying, an expression of sadness is about all they will do.
how can you use “potential” and “imminent” in the same phrase? IOW….you don’t have a clue because you are regurgitating some BS that you failed to research.
And what is the source of your picture? I’ll assume that its a photoshop prize you used to instill interest until I hear otherwise….which I’m 100% sure I won’t!
Your article is a joke. A simple search on this issue will reveal (from sources like Missouri DNS) that it is monitored closely, and Republic has major liabilities if it does not. Do you really believe that Republic (the waste company) wants to spend billions on potential human injuries and allowing this problem to escalate??? Nothing is further from the truth! And by the way, that ridiculous lawsuit supposedly filed to which nothing is happening, occurred because this is the vehicle they use to secretize data on the issue. Its used widely by the government since the government officials are beholden to big industry. You haven’t figured that out yet….you numbskulls???
Get a clue folks. ANother “bomb scare” article that doesn’t hold water. What I would expect from Activistpost.com since their only interest is # of visits and clicks on their advertisements. That’s the game and you’re in it!
So Vibes….live up to your charming biographical description of (quote) – is an author, researcher and investigative journalist.
Now that’s funny!
“Hoping for the best” ! Yep, just like the two mines they have released contaminated water from. Incompetence from the Epa, at best, Criminal? Probably. But they can prosecute some local farmer for building a pond on his own property!
How does a fire at a landfill sustain for 5 years? I can’t warp my head around this! And it’s near a nuclear waste dump? Wow! You can’t make this stuff up!
I believe this is similar to a coal mine fire. They make their own fuel and can burn many years until they run out of fuel. They are about impossible to stop. It would seem like this fire would be fairly easy to put out but I would need to know the depth and width of the fire. Plus we are dealing with the government here, specifically the EPA. A more inept group of people would be hard to find. I wonder if they have ever heard of a drill rig? They can inject CO2 or fire retardant foam into and ahead of the fire to stop it if they wanted to. If it is only several hundred feet deep, they could dig a trench to stop it. It isn’t rocket science but you do need someone with a functioning brain on the project..
Sounds like a tire fire
These people needs a jail sentene and a heay fine then they will wake up
When “journalists” make errors in grammar such as this:
“even estimated because the radiation extends beyond the walls of the site”
it is difficult to understand what they mean.
Note that ‘radiation’ is the wrong word and is an error in grammar.
Give Obama and the spineless wonders in Washington some shovels an have them dig it
…DISLIKE!!!…DISLIKE!!!…DISLIKE!!!…DISLIKE!!!…DISLIKE!!!…DISLIKE!!!
…DISLIKE!!!…DISLIKE!!!…DISLIKE!!!…DISLIKE!!!!!
There is nothing more incompetent than all the morons ruining the United States. The 5 million US federal employees, need to be reduced to unemployed. Starting with the muslam in the White House.
If this were a serious threat, it seems like they would put out the fire.
Now here is a part of the Globalist plan that has been in motion for decades. When the central planners are in control it is easy to manufacture a crisis that will unfold over decades. The nuclear waste, the landfill, the fire are all peices of a big puzzle intent on depopulating. Just as Fukishima was placed near a fault by a company whose design engineers resigned in protest of the building of the facility on the coast of an area known for enormous tsunamis we have the makings of a well-engineered disaster whose consequences will displace millions. More importantly it will kill in large numbers too. This is my opinion, of course, but nothing happens by accident in this world.
More money, more power, more control, more government is the only way to solve this problem which of course was caused by GOVERNMENT! Health care messed up? Education messed up? Social Security messed up? Environment messed up? Banks messes up? More Gov…?
It is so gracious of the government to give the people a warning at this early stage of a possibly man (government) caused disaster. They will trumpet about the non-existent global warming endlessly
Obama just banned pork in US prisons!!! For 200 years inmates have been eating pork. Now Obama thinks it is wrong ?!?! Any chance his Muslim handlers are behind this??? DUMP OBAMA ANY WAY YOU CAN !!
Let them eat cake.
Maybe some of those millions of dollars spent on armanent by EPA should have been spent on this problem. I wonder who the owner of the dump is being protected by and why aren’t they (EPA) doing their job instead of harassing landowners about their retention ponds. Follow the money some politician is friendly with this dump owner.
Remember the HALF LIFE of radioactive particles is on the order of Thousands of Years. The wind (every Year) picks up dust from tests done above ground in the 1950’s and deposits them somewhere——/?Skin cancer, lung cancer—–who knows? The government would be responsible IF they admitted fault.
Why can’t they put the fire out? How does a fire burn for 5 years? Anybody know?
Radioactive material can be detected and located with a Geiger Counter. And if it can be found it can be removed. There’s no excuse for the EPA not to have relocated this dangerous material years ago.
I’ve been saying it for years and people tell me that there’s nothing to worry about. They’re disposing of nuclear waste in ways that aren’t tested, certainly not proven and obviously unsafe. That stuff doesn’t just biodegrade and return to a natural/neutral state like organic waste does. Nuclear energy is dangerous for more than one reason, but safe disposal is the most concerning to me. The mine waste that the EPA recently launched downstream is a very small and minor example of what can happen with waste that isn’t properly handled, but rather stored in some fashion that leaves it vulnerable to contaminate the environment in the future. Nuclear waste is far more dangerous than mine waste and it’s effects in the future,(when it’s improper storage become that unforeseen problem), is very troubling. We’re leaving a major problem for future generations to deal with but calling it a non-issue. That mine waste wasn’t an issue until there was some concern that the containment was possibly insufficient and the “officials” stepped in to assure the safety of the people and environment. The people who put it there originally probably thought they were being as safe with it as the more recent idiots think they are being with nuclear waste. Human stupidity is going to be the death of us all.