Some of the nuclear waste buried near a smoldering underground fire at a Missouri landfill will be dug up and the rest will be capped under a new federal plan.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's remedy announced Thursday comes a decade after its initial cap-and-monitor proposal at suburban St. Louis' West Lake Landfill was met with so much opposition that the agency went back to the drawing board. The partial excavation plan slightly modifies a proposal announced in February.
The project is expected to take a little over four years and cost $205 million, a price tag to be shouldered by the landfill's owner and other parties deemed responsible for the contamination.
Bridgeton Landfill favored capping the site and says in a statement that partial excavation creates unnecessary risks.
