West Lake Landfill Owners Sue Mallinckrodt

The owners of the West Lake Landfill in Bridgeton, Mo., are suing Mallinckrodt LLC to help pay costs of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) cleanup. The EPA ordered a $205 million cleanup to remove radioactive waste from the site.

According to a St. Louis-Dispatch report, Mallinckrodt's predecessor, Mallinckrodt Chemical Works, processed uranium at its factory in St. Louis that was used in the U.S. government's Manhattan Project, a World War II-era program that produced the first nuclear weapons. In 1973, about 8,700 tons of leached barium sulfate from the weapons program was “mixed with approximately 38,000 tons of contaminated soil and used to cover trash being dumped” at the landfill, according to the EPA.

The $205 million cleanup calls for excavating about 70 percent of the landfill's Manhattan Project-era radioactivity and disposing of it out of state.

St. Louis Post-Dispatch has more details:

ST. LOUIS • The operator of the West Lake Landfill is suing Mallinckrodt LLC to pay part of the Environmental Protection Agency's ordered $205 million cleanup of the site.

Bridgeton Landfill LLC, a subsidiary of Republic Services, filed suit Tuesday in the U.S. District Court of Eastern Missouri against the drug manufacturer, which has operations in Hazelwood. 

Mallinckrodt's predecessor, Mallinckrodt Chemical Works, processed uranium at its factory in St. Louis that was used in the U.S. government's Manhattan Project, the World War II-era program that produced the first nuclear weapons.

Read the full article here.