OT: Radioactive landfill cover is criticized

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http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/stlouiscitycounty/story/308F1FF157ACB5CD8625747300131DA6?OpenDocument Radioactive landfill cover is criticized 06/25/2008 CLAYTON — About a dozen residents opposed to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's plan to cover a radioactive landfill near Earth City asked the St. Louis County Council on Tuesday to formally protest the plan.The group says the material at West Lake Landfill should instead be removed because of potential flooding and water contamination.Dr. Gavin , a researcher at Washington University Medical School, likened the EPA's decision to cover the waste without including a bottom liner to placing a bowl over water. "And we all know that an inverted bowl won't hold water," said.Ginger , with the Sierra Club of Missouri, said that the half-life of the waste, left over from local work on the Manhattan Project to build the first atom bombs during World War II, was 4.5 billion years. "Who will be monitoring after 400 years, let alone 1 billion years?" said.The EPA contends that the landfill's

contents can be safely contained.