ST. CHARLES COUNTY, Mo. – St. Charles County residents got more information about radioactive exposure in Weldon Spring on Wednesday. Elected officials held a meeting to help provide more information about Senator Josh Hawley’s compensation bill.
Hundreds of people came out to the meeting to hear from State Representative Tricia Byrnes about high levels of uranium in Weldon Spring despite cleanup efforts from the Missouri Department of Natural Resources.
“Clean in DOE standards is not to be confused with a vernacular that means clean up,” Byrnes said. “The groundwater will never be cleaned up at that site, and people don’t realize that.”
She said the town hall was; for some people, the first time they heard about radiation exposure in St. Charles County. Byrnes said during the town hall that the level of radiation could be worse than Westlake Landfill or Coldwater Creek.
“These people don’t understand it. We even had elected officials that called up and said, ‘You realize there is nothing radioactive there.’ I can assure you that is not a billion dollars worth of filler; it’s just not,” Byrnes said.
She said meetings like the one Wednesday are critical to helping find more people who were exposed to radiation based on where they live.
“I’m a little concerned about Francis Howell being missed. The senator understands that,” Byrnes said. “They looked at historical zip codes, and it’s really hard in a hurry to look at the historical zip code maps. So they may have everybody that went to the school, but I just want to ensure that.”
For more information on Senator Hawley’s bill, click here.