By JIM SALTER, Associated Press
FLORISSANT, Mo. (AP) — Some parents of youngsters at Jana Elementary School in suburban St. Louis say they’ll seek medical testing and guidance from doctors about what to do next, after a privately-funded environmental study found radioactive contamination inside the varsity and on the playground.
The Hazelwood Board of Education on Tuesday announced plans to shut the grade school in Florissant, Missouri, indefinitely and clean it. The roughly 400 students — 80% of whom are Black — will do virtual learning for now, then be sent to a few of the district’s 19 other elementary schools starting Nov. 28.
It’s unclear how long the cleanup process will take, what it should involve or who pays for it. A district spokeswoman declined comment beyond a written statement that broadly outlined the plan to shut the varsity and relocate children.
Coldwater Creek runs directly behind Jana Elementary, which has educated 1000’s of youngsters because it opened 50 years ago. The creek was contaminated within the Forties and Nineteen Fifties when waste from atomic bomb material manufactured in St. Louis got into the waterway near Lambert Airport, where the waste was stored. The creek runs 19 miles (30 kilometers) before spilling into the Missouri River.
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The result was an environmental nightmare. For many years, children who lived near the creek hunted for crawdads and splashed within the water on hot summer days, unaware of the poison they were playing in.
A 2019 federal report determined that those exposed to Coldwater Creek from the Sixties to the Nineties could have an increased risk of bone cancer, lung cancer and leukemia. Environmentalists and area residents have cited several instances of extremely rare cancers which have sickened and killed people.
The Environmental Protection Agency established a Superfund site in 1989, and the federal government is spending thousands and thousands to wash up the mess, though the project is not expected to finish until 2038.
Amidst that backdrop, it’s no wonder that Jana Elementary parents were alarmed by the Oct. 10 report from Boston Chemical Data Corp., funded by two law firms suing to hunt compensation for illnesses and deaths. It found levels of radioactive isotope lead-210 that were 22 times the expected level on the kindergarten playground. It also found high levels of polonium, radium and other material inside the varsity.
Kimberly Anderson told the board during a packed meeting on Tuesday that she is raising three grandchildren who attend Jana Elementary. She fearful concerning the health damage that may have already got occurred.
“This could cause long-term affects with children,” Anderson said, adding the district should provide a health worker who can offer “insight as to what I must be searching for and what I would like to have tested for my children.”
To begin with, Anderson said she plans to have the blood of her grandchildren tested.
Ashley Bernaugh is president of the PTA, lives nearby and has a son who attends. She called the findings of the study “terrifying.” She’s done enough research to know any health ramifications could also be years or many years away, not immediate.
“But lab testing could be prudent especially due to levels of radioactivity and lead found,” Bernaugh said.
The Army Corps of Engineers earlier found contamination within the woods nearby. But since none was present in the world between the woods and the varsity, the agency didn’t test the constructing or the grounds.
Phillip Moser, program manager of the Corps’ Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Motion Program in St. Louis, expressed concerns concerning the Boston Chemical report, calling it “incomplete and never consistent with the approved processes required to do an evaluation at one in all our sites.”
Still, it was enough to prompt local, state and federal lawmakers to call for immediate motion.
U.S Rep. Cori Bush, a St. Louis Democrat, said the federal government “is chargeable for this waste” and desires to wash it up.
U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley, a Republican, wrote to President Joe Biden on Wednesday, asking that he declare a federal emergency to expedite remediation. If cleanup isn’t feasible, Hawley said the federal government should pay for a recent constructing.
“The parents, children and residents of this area have waited years for the federal government to finish its cleanup,” Hawley wrote. “Now their school is contaminated. They deserve immediate relief.”
The plight of the children at Jana Elementary hit hard for others who imagine their very own lives have been upended by contamination in Coldwater Creek.
Christen Commuso works for the Missouri Coalition for the Environment, and she or he grew up near the creek. She told the board that she’s had several health problems, including thyroid cancer in her early 30s.
“I’m standing before you as a living testament of what this waste can do,” Commuso said.
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