Coldwater Creek in St. Louis, an area where children and family visit, apparently was contaminated by toxic chemicals left behind by the Manhattan Project. The creek is now being sampled for radioactive material by the Army Corps of Engineers. (Army Corps of Engineers/Kay Drey Mallinckrodt Collection)
ENVIRONMENTALISTS CALL ON BIDEN ADMIN TO TANK NATURAL GAS PROJECT AMID NATIONWIDE ARCTIC BLAST
Hawley is pushing to expand and extend the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act, which will expire this year. The legislation would make it so people who may have been sickened by chemicals in St. Louis and other areas could receive compensation from the government.
"We've come to find that St. Louis was a uranium processing site. So was Kentucky. So was Tennessee, that the extent of the testing that was done in the West was far greater than we knew," Hawley said.
The documents included internal memos from Mallinckrodt Chemical Works, a company hired by the U.S. government to process chemicals for nuclear weapons. The cache also included testing and sampling from government agencies as well as warnings that sites exposed to those chemicals may not have been safe.
SEE THE DOCUMENTS BELOW. APP USERS: CLICK HERE.
"The evidence was there, the facts were there, and it told the story from beginning to end," Nickel said.
Mallinckrodt Chemical Works in St. Louis worked to process uranium that would eventually help create the first sustained nuclear chain reaction. After the plant shut down, the company worked to dispose of the chemicals. An internal memo from 1949 revealed workers discussed health and safety concerns that came with where they stored the waste.
"Point No. 2 concerns the problem of the disintegrating K-65 drums at the airport," the memo stated. "This is recognized as a severe problem."
Federal officials first stored the waste at a site near St. Louis Airport. The location was near a creek that stretched 14 miles through North St. Louis County. The barrels were left out in the open and exposed to the elements.
"Right away, you could see that the government knew how dangerous this waste was," Chapman said.
WHITE HOUSE ECO COUNCIL AT ODDS OVER TECHNOLOGY CENTRAL TO BIDEN'S GREEN GOALS
Flooding and high waters occur annually along the potentially contaminated Coldwater Creek of St. Louis. (Karen Nickel )
JOE MANCHIN THREATENS TO OPPOSE BIDEN NOMINEES OVER UPCOMING POWER PLANT CRACKDOWN
"Wind and rain, and also flooding events, took some of those contaminants, and they were carried down the stream in the sediment and then deposited during flooding events and also just during the normal flow," U.S. Army Corps of Engineers St. Louis District Program Manager Phil Moser said. "This is all historical contamination from decades ago, and that's why it's so difficult today finding this contamination."
The Army Corps of Engineers has been sampling for radioactive material all along Coldwater Creek, some of which dated to before the St. Louis population boom.
"This was before homes were built. And lo and behold, in the late ‘50s and ’60s, homes were being built on top of this," Nickel said.
Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, crews moved the waste to a different location near the airport and again left it out in the open.
"The controls back in the day were surely not what they are now. That's why we're in the current situation," Moser said.
Crews stored the Manhattan Project chemicals at multiple sites around St. Louis. (Fox News)
Advocates and lawmakers, including Hawley, said the cleanup could move faster.
"For years, the people of St. Louis were told, ‘Don't worry. There's no significant radiation.’ Or they were told, ‘Hey, we've cleaned it all up.’ In fact, those things were not true," Hawley said.
"It was taking years to do testing and really get the scope and magnitude of how contaminated North County is," Chapman said.
Testing from almost 50 years ago found possible contamination in parts of the creek. A 1977 report from the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee detailed samples from Coldwater Creek. Testing in drainage ditches, which carried run-off water into the creek, showed average radiation levels were almost five times higher than usual.
"We haven't seen that level at these sites, since I've been here for sure," Moser said.
In the 1970s, workers moved the waste once again, this time to West Lake Landfill in Bridgeton, Missouri.
"It is not possible in this United States of America to purchase a home next to a site that has Manhattan Project radioactive waste just sitting up for decades," Chapman said.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
Chadman, Nickel and thousands of others eventually would call neighborhoods near the West Lake Landfill home.
"The time to act is now. This should have been done 50 years ago, but it hasn't been. So, now it's time to do it," Hawley said.
Bret Baier currently serves as FOX News Channel's (FNC) anchor and executive editor of Special Report with Bret Baier (weeknights at 6-7PM/ET) as well as chief political anchor of the network. Baier is also host of FOX News Audio's "The Bret Baier Podcast" which includes Common Ground, The Campaign, The Candidates and The All-Star Panel. He joined FNC in 1998 as the first reporter in the Atlanta bureau and is now based in Washington, D.C.
Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more Fox News politics content.
Subscribed
You've successfully subscribed to this newsletter!
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/officials-knew-manhattan-project-chemicals-disposed-improperly-missouri-sites-documents-reveal