Officials from the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) who had been scheduled to attend a hearing about the West Lake landfill in suburban St. Louis, Missouri, cancelled their appearance after threats against them were made online.
According to an online report from Public Radio station KWMU, the EPA Region 7 officials had agreed to attend the meeting scheduled for Monday, May 16. The focus of the meeting was on radioactive waste contained in the West Lake Landfill in Bridgeton, Missouri.
The KWMU articles says the EPA officials declined to attend the public meeting “after someone made threatening comments in a Facebook group for local advocates.”
The EPA officials were to have been joined by representatives from the Army Corps of Engineers and the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, according to KWMU, and their goal was to provide “updates on cleanup at the landfill before they were to speak at a regular meeting of hundreds of community members.”
The landfill reportedly contains radioactive waste stemming from the Manhattan Project, when the U.S. developed the atomic bomb during World War II. Some nearby residents have been vocal in seeking a cleanup of the landfill, and in January 2016 the EPA announced the installation of a barrier to keep the West Lake Landfill apart from an adjacent, smoldering municipal solid waste (MSW) landfill.
KWMU reports that despite the absence of the EPA officials, “The meeting of the Community Action Group, or CAG, went as planned.”
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