Coldwater Creek
Radius: The legacy of America’s nuclear weapons testing program from States Newsroom and MuckRock
Americans are typically told the story of the scientists who built the atomic bomb as an intellectual race for the world’s most powerful weapon during wartime. More than 100 atmospheric weapons tests were conducted in the U.S. and its territories between 1945 and 1962. It resulted in widespread radioactive fallout across much of the U.S., […]
‘We got mad’: Years of pain after a childhood near radioactive Coldwater Creek in Missouri
Billy Winters’ childhood in Florissant in the 1960s sounds enviable. His parents bought a new house as thousands of other families flocked to the growing St. Louis suburbs. Winters’ neighborhood was full of other kids to play with. He spent almost every day splashing in a creek that ran near his home. But Winters didn’t […]
Coldwater Creek to finally have warning signs after decades of nuclear contamination
More than 70 years after workers first realized barrels of radioactive waste risked contaminating Coldwater Creek, the federal government has started work to put up signs warning residents. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said in a statement Monday that it was working with the Environmental Protection Agency to add signs along the creek to […]
Cost of Coldwater Creek radioactive waste cleanup tops $400M, federal agency finds
Cleaning up Coldwater Creek and other radioactive waste sites in St. Louis County will cost more than twice what federal officials thought six years ago, a new federal report finds. A report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office released Tuesday finds the government’s financial liability at the sites ballooned from $177 million in 2016 to […]
Biden supports expanding compensation to radiation victims in Missouri, New Mexico
President Joe Biden on Wednesday said he’s interested in expanding a federal program to compensate people who have gotten sick because of the country’s nuclear weapons development and testing programs. The Associated Press reported Biden told a crowd in New Mexico he was ”prepared to help in terms of making sure that those folks are […]
Energy secretary stops short of endorsing atomic waste victims fund in Missouri visit
ST. LOUIS — Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm in a visit to Missouri on Tuesday would not commit to supporting bipartisan legislation meant to compensate people who have been exposed to radioactive material from U.S. weapons development and production. “I can’t speak for the administration on that particular piece because I just don’t know the answer,” […]
Missouri Democrat calls for special session on St. Louis nuclear waste, Parson says no
One of Missouri’s top Democratic officials asked the governor on Monday to call a special legislative session in response to news reports of the “unacceptable mismanagement” of radioactive waste in the St. Louis area. “The problems related with this waste have festered for nearly 80 years,” House Minority Leader Crystal Quade said in a letter […]
U.S. Senate OKs Hawley proposal to expand coverage for atomic bomb-related illness to St. Louis
The U.S. Senate voted narrowly Thursday in favor of expanding a program that compensates Americans who become ill because of exposure to radiation from the country’s development and testing of nuclear weapons to cover Missourians. The proposal, offered by Sen. Josh Hawley, was attached as an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act, which authorizes […]
Read the thousands of documents journalists used to investigate St. Louis radioactive waste
“Atomic Fallout” is a historical re-investigation of the St. Louis region’s 75-year history with nuclear waste, conducted by a consortium of newsrooms, including The Missouri Independent, MuckRock and The Associated Press. It relies on thousands of pages of federal government documents, most of which were obtained through the Freedom of Information Act. Many of the […]
Hawley demands St. Louis nuclear cleanup, faces questions on his environmental record
WELDON SPRING — U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley on Thursday decried the federal government’s “negligence” that allowed radioactive waste to sicken St. Louis-area residents for decades and invited Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm to visit the community still suffering from the legacy of the atomic bomb. “You all have had enough of it,” Hawley said. “I’ve had […]
New findings inspire state, federal lawmakers to demand action on St. Louis radioactive waste
Revelations that government officials and private companies downplayed or failed to fully investigate the dangers of radioactive waste in St. Louis sparked outrage among state and federal lawmakers Wednesday and a promise from U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley to seek funding for residents who have become ill. At the heart of the bipartisan calls for action […]
Records reveal 75 years of government downplaying, ignoring risks of St. Louis radioactive waste
For kids like Sandy Mitchell, Ted Theis and Janet Johnson, childhood in the North St. Louis County suburbs in the 1960s and ‘70s meant days playing along the banks or splashing in the knee-deep waters of Coldwater Creek. They caught turtles and tadpoles, jumped into deep stretches of the creek from rope swings and ate […]