A county in Missouri has been deemed a 'cancer cluster' due to World War II-era radium used in America's atomic bomb efforts littering the region.
For decades, residents of St Louis County have raised concerns about a spike in cancer diagnosis - and specifically those living just outside the West Lake Landfill.
The landfill has held thousands of tons of radioactive waste and contaminated soil since 1973 when drums containing the chemicals were illegally dumbed by a contractor for the Cotter Corporation.
The state launched a cleanup for the site this year, revealing Monday that discovered the toxins have contaminated nearby groundwater in Bridgeton that sits northwest of the St Louise Lambert International Airport.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) found levels exceed limits for drinking water and plans to investigate whether it's leaked into nearby wells or it the toxins could reach the Missouri River.
The hazardous chemicals filter into the soil through precipitation or surface run-off and moves into groundwater systems.
In the case of radium, a naturally occurring radioactive metal, this chemical has been linked to the increase of lung and bone cancer - two types that have seen a spike in the region.
From 2015 to 2019, St Louis County had an age-adjusted lung cancer mortality rate of 38.5 per 100,000 people, which was higher than the national rate but lower than Missouri's.
The entire 40 tons of uranium oxide that was used to make the atomic bomb was manufactured at the Mallinckrodt industrial site in downtown St. Louis, which produced 200 million pounds for the Manhattan Project.
And the facility continued its work to produce pure uranium during the Cold War.
But in 1973, Mallinckrodt Chemical Works took advantage of the free disposal in the West Lake Landfill and commissioned Cotter Corporation to do it, according to Vanderbilt University.
'Keeping ultra-hazardous waste near people's property and not taking responsibility for it is a big problem,' said Kenneth B. McClain, senior partner of Humphrey, Farrington & McClain that is pursuing legal action.
'These landfills are the poster child of that problem. You can't have people living in proximity of nuclear waste and not be responsible for it.'
Testing of the landfill in the 1980s showed high levels of radium - and shortly after residents had spikes in cancer diagnoses.
In 2010, a fire broke out underground about 1,000 feet from the West Lake Landfill that is still burning today, which sent sulfur-based compounds flowing through the region.
'The number of people that had not had issues before that suddenly, that was happening, you know, they were having lung issues, and then it was cardiac,' resident Dawn Chapman told NBC in 2022.
Generations of families who moved to St. Louis County since the end of WWII have faced rare cancers and autoimmune disorders that are believed to come from playing in nearby creeks, which have shown radiation levels exceeding drinking water limits.
Rhonda Branneky, a Bridgeton resident, said her two children had suffered from cancer after 'radioactive material [was] illegally dumped across from [her] family home.'
She was forced to leave with her two kids who had already suffered from cancers linked to the 'leftover mess from the Manhattan Project.'
Debi lost her brother Doug in 2007 to an aggressive, rare form of cancer called Glioblastoma Multiforme.
Doug had a baseball-sized tumor removed, but following surgery he was given just 18 months to live - he passed away at age 14.
Debi and Doug grew up in the now nonexistent Brownleigh neighborhood near the Manhattan Project radioactive waste storage site at the St Louis Airport (SLAPS).
The EPA did not confirm on Monday about how much radium was detected in the groundwater- the maximum level is 5 picocuries per liter.
A spokesperson told Dailymail.com that 'no conclusions have been made about the source(s) of the radium in off-site groundwater because data collection is ongoing.'
'Field activities associated with the Remedial Investigation began in 2020 and are ongoing,' the EPA spokesperson added.
'Once completed, information from the well network will be evaluated and conclusions about the nature and extent of groundwater impacts, including the possible source(s), will be provided in the Remedial Investigation Report.'
About 14 miles from Bridgeton sits Coldwater Creek, which the federal government confirmed in 2018 was causing cancer in the area - it was labeled as one of the most polluted waterways in 1981.
Mary Oscko had lived in St Louis County her entire life and grew up spending time at St. Cin Park, which sits along Coldwater Creek and contained low-dose radioactive soil.
She was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer in 2013, despite never being a smoker, and succumbed to the disease last year - her diagnosis has since been linked to radioactive waste disposal.
Kim Visintine also grew up playing at Coldwater Creek, and when she gave birth to her son Zach, doctors found he had a rare radiation-linked brain tumor.
The infant underwent his first brain surgery at one week old and started chemo two weeks later.
Zach had multiple brain surgeries before he passed away at just six years old.
Kirbi Pemberton solemnly stood in front of her town council in 2018, sharing the story about her daughter, Kirstee, who passed away at 10 years old rom a cancerous brain tumor.
Ron, Kirby's husband, was diagnosed with prostate cancer in May, 2014.
'There’s six people in my house, and all six of us have issues,' Kirbi told The Guardian in 2016.
'Honestly, people literally die, and we’re still sitting here doing nothing.'
It's unknown how many people have been diagnosed with and died from major illnesses related to radioactive waste in the area to date, but a 2013 report by St. Louis Magazine revealed at the time that 7,200 residents had been affected.
The EPA is now adding groundwater monitoring wells between the West Lake Landfill and the Missouri River to determine if radioactive contamination is spreading from the site.
'Radium in the groundwater is not impacting the community due to the availability of public water supply in the area,' an EPA spokesperson told DailyMail.com.
'The Remedial Investigation will include a risk assessment evaluating the potential for human exposure from radium in the groundwater.
'Again, this report will also evaluate and discuss the possible the source(s) of radium in the groundwater.'
Groundwater wells were expected to be fully installed by August 2022, 'but the detections in offsite locations required a significant expansion of the network in order to delineate exactly where the impacts are found,' Snehal Bhagat, the Remedial Project Manager at West Lake said at a December press briefing.
'So a lot more wells were put in. We're still putting them in as we chase the edges of the impacts.'
The West Lake Landfill is just one of several sites in St Louis County that have been contaminated by decades-old nuclear waste.
In the wake of World War II, the radioactive waste created from refining uranium for the atomic bomb was moved to the local airport where it remained until it was sold in 1973.
At the time, there weren't any federal laws regulating hazardous waste disposal, and an estimated 133,007 tons of radioactive refuse was dumped at the site.
Some were left in barrels that eventually rusted, while others were buried under soil and some were simply left in uncontained piles.
Keeping the waste at the airport posed a major problem for the surrounding area because the nearby Coldwater Creek could flood, spreading the radioactive waste.
When it was removed, the massive amounts of radioactive waste were taken to Coldwater Creek to extract valuable metals and the remaining waste was illegally dumped at the West Lake Landfill.
However, the area had already been contaminated for years as the material often spilled off trucks and was dumped on the ground next to the creek, contaminating the water for miles.
The reports come as records revealed the government downplayed the risks attached to the radioactive waste, calling them 'slight,' 'minimal' or 'low-level' and one engineering consultant incorrectly claimed in a 1970s report that that human contact with Coldwater Creek was 'rare,' the Missouri Independent reported.
An internal memo from the company that was used to develop the atomic bomb, Mallinckrodt Chemical Works, showed that workers were concerned the chemicals could leak into the creek, according to the Missouri Independent.
The health hazard to workers handling the K-65 material, especially in broken drums, is much more serious and immediate than the possible hazard of stream pollution,' the memo said.
'As recently as last year, we got a new cache of documents that showed the full extent of the government's knowledge and what the government knew years ago — 30, 40, 50 years ago — that they had poisoned the creek, that their landfill that they dumped the waste into was going to cause huge problems, environmental problems and health problems. And they lied about it,' Sen. Josh Hawley, (R-Missouri) told Fox News.
'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.'
