Koster criticizes EPA over handling of landfill

ST. LOUIS -- Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster is criticizing the Environmental Protection Agency for missing deadlines in its planned cleanup of the West Lake Landfill near St. Louis.

Koster said in a letter to EPA officials progress on the landfill, where nuclear waste was dumped in the 1970s, is taking longer than the agency initially projected.

He's asking the EPA to disclose a study on the extent of radioactive contamination in the area and details for a barrier to separate West Lake from an adjacent landfill where an underground fire began burning five years ago.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported the EPA has overseen the site for 25 years.

Landfill owner Republic Services said it was willing to build a barrier in 2013, but construction has been pushed back so the EPA could define a clean path through the radioactive contamination.

It originally had hoped to begin work in 2014.

On Dec. 31, the EPA committed to building a barrier but said the legal agreements ordering Republic Services to construct it would not be finished until early this year.

Design is expected to take the remainder of the year, and construction should begin in 2017, the EPA said last week.