A Brief History of: The West Lake Landfill (Short Documentary)

[@PlainlyDifficult]

Where do you dump your nuclear waste?

[@luckymackerel777]

the shower drain obviously

[@T3hJimmer]

Nice try Mr. NRC

[@F100cTomas]

Under the rug

[@blackvulture6818]

I sell it to rouge nations

[@stevenhale2935]

Mineshafts!

[@leadpoisoning717]

A video guide on all the various units of measurement for radiation (sieverts, roentgen, rads, curies, becquerels, coulombs), how they compare, and what each are used for might be a useful topic to cover.

[@burtenplays]

I thought it was some kind of joke till I looked up what a grey was lol. I noticed it quite a few videos back and it sounded like there was a new one every video.

[@MakerInMotion]

All I know is 3.6 roentgen is no big deal. Not great, not terrible.

[@kevinfleming]

Agreed, took me a while to understand them all but they make sense to me now

[@mikeyslife8250]

I don't think people give a fuck enough to make a video about it

[@Keira-_-]

@@MakerInMotion about a chest X-ray or so.

[@3rdalbum]

Can I suggest you do a video about the delisted town of Whittenoom, Western Australia? It was an asbestos mining town. Conditions were so bad, they reckon if you spent a minute in the asbestos bagging room you would have a 100% chance of getting mesothelioma. The dust would settle on the workers clothes and be inhaled by their wives when they went to wash the clothes. The company, James Hardie, sold asbestos tailings as a cheap alternative to sand, and locals bought it for use in sandpits - the poor kids who played in the sandpits all died before their 30th birthday. There has been no cleanup. The town is far away from everywhere and is now officially removed from the map, but unbelievably people still go there to camp.

[@PlainlyDifficult]

Thanks for the suggestion!

[@BTW...]

Some people actually refuse to leave the town, that is still on maps ! Hessian bags that were used to ship the stuff were recycled to make carpet underlay too. Yeah.. the name CSR is attached to that. And, remember the former lawyer who worked for JH arguing against public health compensation, later a high profile politician... the name is Julia Bishop This Proper shit storm even has a theme song - Blue Sky Mine - kzbin.info/www/bejne/e2O1pmeVdp18hLc Most unfortunate.

[@BTW...]

@@PlainlyDifficult Blue Sky Mine - kzbin.info/www/bejne/e2O1pmeVdp18hLeNay... MAGA - Make Asbestos Great Again .... NOT.

[@stevie-ray2020]

Also think there was a smaller asbestos mine near Grafton on the NSW north coast (white, not blue asbestos). The workers were mostly indigenous locals, & their children would play on piles of waste asbestos dumped in the bush not far from their homes.

[@h5skb4ru41]

@West Park go get help

[@oceanman3804]

Wait they were selling nuclear waste? “Ah yes I’ll have one barrel of the glowing stuff please”

[@PlainlyDifficult]

£1 one waste

[@FlameDarkfire]

@@PlainlyDifficult just a pound a pound!

[@rickyrico80]

Those watch hands aren't going to paint themselves

[@michaelsanchez1361]

No wonder if there will be dirty bomb attack occurred because of selling that nuke waste and fall into evil hands

[@melina001a]

No No I'm not making a dirty bomb...just using it on some...turtles yeah turtles... you know they get into sewers right?

[@gonun69]

Literally a nuclear dumpster fire.

[@Zarcondeegrissom]

yeah, lol, that about tops it for 2020, till a random big rock appears out of the sky or something, maybe murcery or mars will take an abrupt 90-degree turn and head straght at earth or something, lol.

[@Akriashi]

Can't just be a straight copy of Centralia, that would be plagarism...

[@applesthecat]

Ah, me too

[@DKTAz00]

Yeah, Transformers was pretty bad xD !

[@poland5606]

I used to live near this and drove by this a lot

[@toblexson5020]

The 'everything is fine' fire meme comes to mind here. nuclear waste, local residents, groundwater leakage, and an underground fire/risk of spontaneous combustion. Wonderful. I'm sure that plastic cap would have solved every problem and wasn't just something else that could have caught alight.

[@monad_tcp]

It was for the rain to stop getting into the side, its a sensible thing to do

[@bellefastbelle5686]

Look up Coldwater Creek. I grew up playing in the dirt that was less than two miles from the airport site. And I lived along coldwater creek for years. More than cancer, the immune systems of many of us are roached. Mine is. One of my best friends had leukemia that would have been directly related to the dump site if they hadn’t settled out of court. My child’s school has a very specific plan for what to do when the fire hits the main bulk of the waste. It’s a fucking joke in this town. They made two documentaries about it. Atomic Homefront and one I cannot remember for the life of me. Atomic Homefront was bad but I remember the other one being terrifying. www.coldwatercreekfacts.com/ This is much larger than he covered. Obviously you cant always cover a whole story. This one is so much more.

[@maddiewhatever441]

@@bellefastbelle5686 YES. My grandfather worked at this sight as a cop directing the trucks, and lived by cold water creek. He died from cancer, and all his kids played in the fucking creek.

[@bina7513]

The EPA were literally advocating for further environmental disaster by preventing the waste from being removed completely, making the EPA a bunch of hypocrites in this case. I am sure there could have been a way to effectively remove it with as little damage as possible.

[@bobcloset7963]

welcome to missouri

[@0v3rr1d3]

Two suggestions: Rocky Flats Nuclear Plant - basically America's equivalent of Mayak in USSR Johnstown, PA flood - a dam break in 1889 that killed 2200 people

[@PlainlyDifficult]

Thanks for the suggestion

[@StormsparkPegasus]

Ouch...I thought Hanford was the US's Mayak. Even though the underground tanks at Hanford are all leaking and there is a potential to depopulate a very large area downstream along the Colombia River...AT LEAST it was put in tanks to begin with. (People hear "nuclear waste" and think it's from reactors - the waste in both Hanford and Mayak are the byproducts of the production of plutonium for bombs, not from reactors that generate power.) The USSR...just dumped it all in a lake (that migh also be a neat thing to cover). en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Karachay

[@0v3rr1d3]

@@StormsparkPegasus He actually did Kyshtym a while back! As for Rocky Flats, it was a plutonium production site as well, with a very spotty history. Two major plutonium fires, and decades of poorly stored plutonium waste leaking into the air, water and soil...

[@StormsparkPegasus]

@@0v3rr1d3 Right...Kyshtym is also connected to Mayak. It was used for temporary storage of very high level waste before being transferred to Lake Karachay. I don't think he covered Lake Karachay itself thoguh.

[@0v3rr1d3]

@@StormsparkPegasus Lake Karachay was at the heart of the Kyshtym disaster? So he would have covered it then?

[@Human1337]

Love your work, but you totally missed the cold water creek aspect of this story. I personally played in that creek in the mid 80's while my father played in his softball leagues at St. Ferdinand park in florissant Missouri. The (self reported) cancer rates carry a bit weight than I think you give credit for.

[@delroady]

Hell, where it goes under 270 by Lindbergh they are doing construction and they had radioactive signs set up to either side. This is just normal everywhere, right?

[@maddiewhatever441]

My grandfather actually directed the trucks at the site, and lived at Coldwater creek with my dad. Obviously cancer took him.

[@rsinclair689]

my condolences :-(

[@KingSlimjeezy]

yeah, cold water creek and SLAPS is way worse than westlake

[@michealhuff2299]

@@KingSlimjeezy are those tributaries of the lake?

[@MedicMainDave]

"why is it always us" "why are you always standing on my foot" best part xD

[@thealaskanbullworm1442]

You should do a series on the superfund sites Edit: I didn’t mean ALL I just meant the big ones

[@qzh00k]

There are a few other lists of hazards kept by the army corps of engineers and acronyms like FUSRAP. You will not like those either.

[@gram.]

SuperFUN*

[@vonschweringen8321]

That would be almost limitless, and very interesting to learn about.

[@CreamyPennePasta]

That would be awesome!

[@stargatecommand714]

Looking at you, Picher OK

[@TheJoeSwanon]

Missouri is an extremely industrial friendly state so it’s in their benefit to look the other way. Just like Oklahoma did with Pitcher

[@jdubskiwright2380]

Extremely friendly towards industrial waste and other crap that should not be anywhere near humans..state of Missouri is huge on it and the trash game too

[@TheMicro4]

I'd love to see you talk about Bruin Pennsylvania. Where 3 petrochemical companies thought it was a good idea to dump chemicals into a sinkhole in the middle of the night

[@3bydacreekside]

Speaking as someone from Pittsburgh, it is a miracle this whole state isnt one big Superfund hazmat site.

[@nicholasneyhart396]

@Garrett Powell I am from Cresco and definitely agree this entire state should be a superfund site. Over here a bridge fell into a creek, and was replaced with a rented bridge that is our only way out of the development and we can't afford it so we will be stranded. Also Pocono Mountain East High School had an oil leak after a flood last year and it got into the water table and they lied about it to this day.

[@Blatsen]

I live about 25 miles away from this site in nearby southern Illinois, but unfortunately almost every job I have had over the past 15 years has been in the general vicinity of West Lake Landfill. I was at work nearby the day the fire started, or at least could first be smelled in the general area, and it wasn’t immediately obvious that an underground fire at the landfill was the source of the stench. I didn’t learn that the landfill was the source of the smell until a few days later. The underground fire at the landfill produced an incredibly powerful and overwhelming bad smell on an almost daily basis until around 2015, which is when the smell became intermittent. The smell completely permeated a mile radius around the landfill and could be detected at least 3 or more miles away at times. I have only been able to detect the smell once during the past six months which is a huge improvement. Naturally it smells somewhat like burning trash, but the trash smell is stronger than the fire smell. The fire smell actually comprises a small percentage of the overall stench, but was stronger the first month of the fire. The smell is somewhat more acrid and chemical smelling than a typical landfill smell. The fire has never produced large plumes of smoke since it’s contained underground, but I’ve occasionally seen white plumes of what could either be smoke or steam coming out of some of the ventilation pipes that have been installed in the landfill.

[@scribeslendy595]

Hey man, love the vids, but do have one request. When listing the concentrations of contaminants detected, could you maybe give what the accepted baseline rate if the contaminants are? Without context for what's considered "normal" or "high," it's sometimes difficult to get a sense of just how bad these situations might be for locals and wildlife

[@hatjodelka]

The difficulty with that is that for many toxins what is considered 'acceptable' varies enormously depending on where you live. The EU has much lower acceptable levels for many contaminants than the USA for instance. Also some countries allow big companies to mark their own homework, as it were.

[@scribeslendy595]

@@hatjodelka that's actually a fantastic point

[@hatjodelka]

@@scribeslendy595 I'm old and cynical. I've seen disasters and I've seen incidents where companies say "It's fine, nothing to see here, no health problems." There's a town in England called Camelford. In 1988 the residents weren't told for two weeks of a very serious incident of water contamination. Then they were told the water was fine to drink (if it tastes bad, just mix it with orange juice). It wasn't fine.

[@how_about_naw]

This week I finished watching the entire back catalogue, excited for more 😁

[@PlainlyDifficult]

Thank you for watching!

[@how_about_naw]

@@PlainlyDifficult no sir, thank YOU for the entertainment!

[@gram.]

Pretty peepers

[@BrilliantDesignOnline]

Yup, I keep LUSTING for more, but its all, ah, seen that, and that, and that..YAY, a new one!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[@sixstringedthing]

@@BrilliantDesignOnline People who use over exaggerated language are literally THE WORST THING IN THE WORLD.

[@828enigma6]

It is said the remains of a decomissioned reactor, chemical waste like BZ, CS, and other military goodies were buried in a private landfill just north of Asheville NC.

[@1986lazarus]

BZ eh? That’d be an interesting accidental find!

[@Vok250]

This is fascinating. My dad works in landfill fire prevention and it's amazing how negligent public landfill operations become without constant engineering and regulator supervision.

[@FishFind3000]

Well to most people it’s just a hole in the ground that you fill with trash…. Nobody knows all the science that happens after that.

[@kotnapromke]

Это у вас горит свалка шин? Вы из Спрингфилда?)

[@ramblingrob4693]

I love the two characters with the balloon conversation .. "Why is it always us" so funny and the dump guy saying "Dump it anywhere" so funny. serious topic

[@LightBlueVans]

“why are you always stepping on my foot?” LOL i’ve always noticed this i’m so tickled you brought it up yourself

[@cmdr1911]

I actually worked as a consultant for the monitoring system for the reaction in this landfill. It was one of my first projects out of college. I believe the name is no Bridgeton Landfill. Since then I have worked on a landfill fire that resulted in 88 acres being capped, 60 feet of settling in a year and returning the remain 11 cells into service. Landfills are fascinating engineering.

[@Ryujin469]

hello could you cover the Ajka alumina plant accident that happened in Hungary in 2010?

[@PlainlyDifficult]

It’s on my list thanks for the suggestion!!

[@CivilWarWeekByWeek]

Honey did you take out the trash?

[@SueMead]

*+Civil War Week By Week* If you mean, "did I take your brother out for cocktails? Then that's a big 10-4. Oh, that's not what you meant?"

[@mrcyberpunk]

I'll do it later! Stop bugging me!

[@wadeguidry6675]

Cool way to wake up on a Saturday morning, thanks!

[@NealMetcalf]

This is only a few miles from my house, and yes, it really is this bad. Lived here my whole life and did a research project on local superfund sites back in high school. What a mess it is.

[@RangerHouston]

*Sounds and looks like something you'd see in a Fallout game.*

[@phylippezimmermannpaquin2062]

This is where fallout got the inspiration from after all lol

[@ryanm5217]

Smells like it too...

[@thefez-cat]

The difficulty in satirizing corporate malfeasance and people being utterly cavalier about toxic waste is that it's hard to top 1950s corporations just rubbin' a little dirt on the radium and chucking it in a big porous hole in the ground.

[@randyhavener1851]

Very well done!! Excellent research! I've been following this for a few years and your turned up a few things that I wasn't aware of. You may also want to look at Weldon Springs, since Mallinckrodt later moved the operation across the river. The solution there was rather unique. However, the plant was abandoned for a few decades with another quarry having barrels of waste left there

[@bellefastbelle5686]

And Coldwater creek. Watch Atomic Homeland if you can. There’s another one that is about the nuclear program and St Louis but I cannot remember the name of it.

[@randyhavener1851]

Atomic Homefront, Safe Side of the Fence, and First Secret City Very well done pieces which cover it. There was also one called Rock Pile or something like that about Weldon Springs, but Ive never had the chance to see it. I live 90 minutes from there and never had a clue about any of this until a few years ago.

[@mariaallen3095]

Holy shit. My husband grew up right by that and we lived there for 12 years. Now I know why my mother in law died from cancer and my father in law had cancer and me too.

[@danstolze5732]

Yes, I knew dozens who have died from it but you can't really prove it. It's really sad and nobody in the gov't seems to give a rats ass.

[@carriekoehler8619]

My mother in-law, father in-law, brother in-law and husband all lived near there. All passed away from cancer

[@MrNonDescript01]

At least we still have the Arch? I love the videos - especially the looks into the history and root cause analysis! However, it's a little strange when you watch such a video and it's about where you actually live... I know the folks to the northwest of me are in a bad way due to this mess. :(

[@K-Riz314]

No kidding! I was stoked when I saw the title.

[@AcuraLvR82]

One other critical thing you didnt mention Coldwater Creek, the local stream through that area of Bridgeton was once a popular swimming hole for area children decades ago. Many of these same children grew up and had auto-immune disorders and high rates of rare forms of cancer. A few years ago the epa started finding toxic leachate residues and radioactive traces in basements of buildings in that whole area. Instances of cancers and chemical/radioactive traces have been plotted on a map where the highest numbers are in the most contaminated areas of that entire city. Also do a video of the old Pruitt-Igoe government housing projects which were the subject of radiation experimentation by the Army dumping cadmium sulfide dust into the ventilation systems. Finally there is also the radioactive waste disposal cell on the other side of St. Louis at Weldon Creek that could be made into an entire episode.

[@desireesmith862]

Every time I watch a video about this Coldwater is only just barely mentioned or forgotten completely. It saddens my heart.

[@SerMattzio]

"An underground fire next to tons of nuclear waste?" "Nah don't worry m8 just stick some plastic liner over the top of it LOL"

[@isaacbrooks1430]

I live in the area and the gasses smell terrible from the fire!

[@K-Riz314]

Yes they do! Some days it's unbearable.

[@bellefastbelle5686]

My son goes to Pattonville high. And my husband works at Riverport. Mix in a healthy dose of the asphalt company right next to the high school? The smell is so, so bad. Driving through there is unbearable when it’s hot. Have you seen the evac plan they have in place? “Hope for the best” seems to cover it.

[@TruckerPhilosophy]

@@bellefastbelle5686 That’s an awful smell for sure, but this isn’t that landfill. This is across the highway on the Rock Rd.

[@kenh3757]

@@TruckerPhilosophy the smell makes it over there easily it around a mile away, sometimes a filter pump for the gas breaks down and I can smell at work in St Charles 7 miles away

[@maygolden6506]

Id move

[@vincentrusso4332]

We just left our local landfill in Sussex VA, and I was blown away by the sheer size of the site, and on top of that the Max security prison my 70+ mum works at those inmates have to smell that dang place their entire bid. We live about 9 miles away as the crow flies and we can smell it like it's on top of us when the wind is right. Excellent work as always on the upload LT.

[@Carlos7Matute]

Your posting schedule is on point!

[@thomasprettyman1962]

Great to see you covered this. I attended a symposium about the west lake landfill. the stories from those who is effected by the radioactive waste, was Heart breaking. I believe you did an Amazing job.

[@christophers6886]

These videos are the best. The scale you use is so fun for comparison.

[@PlainlyDifficult]

Thank you! Here at plainly difficult HQ definitely go into great detailed research before we decide on where it falls on the scale. (We don’t ever use a random number generator (apparently))

[@bloodywanker231]

Hey my town had 4 superfund sites. The lindsay light company and chemical company ran a rare earths facility from the 1930's to the 1970's. Sand like waste material called mill tailings was left over which contained radioactive thorium. This was then sold to the public and city as land filler. Needless to say the thorium was spread throughout town and in the river, major park, sewage plant and an large residential area. They had to dig up everything including people's yards which later they paid them for the inconvenience of the removal. It was a huge mess that finished clean up back in 2012.

[@RD9_Designs]

Only 42 years late! How many generations is that? Of kids playing on radioactive lawns and in radioactive parks? I think it's 3 generations, but correct me if I'm wrong. That's not just a tragedy, it's a travesty.

[@deprivedoftrance]

Never heard of this, and i live in the midwest and read up on this sorts of things. Excellent video, thank you.

[@heypalthatsnotscience3469]

I live in the STL area and this is great. Westlake is on the news constantly, and its caught fire a few times.

[@donactdum6635]

YESSS IVE BEEN WAITING FOR THIS ONE THANK YOU!!

[@WolfCoder]

I like how the talking American eagle logo has a British accent.

[@justinfranz1375]

As a resident of STL who lived smack dab between West Lake and Coldwater Creek, glad to see this finally possibly getting remediated. You should also look into Coldwater creek, which got the washdown from the waste when it was stored at Lambert and has lead to high cancer numbers in the surrounding area

[@brigitamartin3543]

EXCUSE ME I grew up near here and NEVER knew about it until now?? Thank you for covering it, Plainly!

[@TheJoeSwanon]

I love the one graphic with the eagle saying “I’m back bitch“ 😂

[@richardcranium2581]

St. Louis resident here, yes it really is that bad and covered up.

[@owenfarmer1588]

stl gang

[@jeremyindelicato9484]

Used to work out in Earth City. When the winds blew from a certain direction it would stink up the entire area.

[@Steadfast_Apparition]

one county over in St. Charles, and we deal with the same nonsense. The highest point of elevation in the county is the containment mound that entombs the remains of the weldon springs ordinance site. The site was obtained VIA wartime eminent domain, completely removing the cities of Howell, Hamburg and Toonersville/Mechanicville. The site was then built into a massive TNT processing plant, which was then converted to uranium enrichment. Much of the land that was obtained was never directly used, but was more of a security threat being too close to the site. If safety was the issue, you'd think they might have taken issue with the local high-school being DIRECTLY NEXT TO the site. anyone from the greater St. Louis Metro area is desensitized to the idea of nuclear/industrial waste, almost as if we've become aware that when the public gets vocal about it, it just causes another cover-up and another contaminated waste site is made somewhere else nearby. If you come to the lou, remember to double up on your batteries, you'll need them for your camera so you can get lovely shots of the arch, and you'll need them to keep your geiger meter running so you don't grow a third arm...

[@ucitymetalhead]

@@Steadfast_Apparition only a third I'm looking like goro over here.

[@stlchucko]

I grew up 5 miles from West Lake landfill and moved to St Charles County in my late teens. My younger brother went to Francis Howell HS near the nuclear waste dump in Weldon Springs. The way the govt treats it is akin to the South Park cops.... “move along. nothing to see here”

[@BeautifulTrainwreck]

Thanks for making this video. I live near this place and I've seen the effect it has had on the residents and community. It's a serious problem that is hard to solve.

[@K-Riz314]

Likewise. Dawn Chapman couldn't have done a better job raising awareness and taking action on it.

[@MarkusxJxKeetz]

I would still love to see you cover the Forgotten Fire, here in Wisconsin. It took place during the Great Chicago Fire, but, it killed more people

[@anne-droid7739]

Ahh, Peshtigo--home of Archie Peachy and the Little River Giver Guts.

[@JetsareBack12]

damn, early this time for once Edit: also great video as always, love your content

[@uzaiyaro]

Damn, dude, you're on fire this week! So many videos! Thank you, sincerely, for your work!

[@lowkeyloki9194]

Love your videos. They are very informative and interesting.

[@PlainlyDifficult]

Thank you!

[@fairwitness7473]

I love your sense of humour. This is awesome and deliciously funny with the text commentary. Thank you my friend!

[@thirstfast1025]

"Good Lord! Look how contaminated this former quarry is! Dig it out and get it into a former mine immediately!"

[@xx1norm1xx]

gotta say i love this channel! These incidents and accidents are so interesting.

[@maryrisler7295]

Literally in my backyard! We still deal with terrible smells, gas burnoffs, an underground fire that can't be put out and ground water contamination.

[@joecool4656]

You need to look into moving then if it is a threat to your safety

[@K-Riz314]

I worked off Carrollton Rd for several years and remember having to close the windows in the apartment units I was working in because of that horrible smell. It's unbearable and that's the least toxic aspect of it. 😷

[@DennisMartinezCalifornia]

Same here. Chatsworth has bad luck. Wildfires. Radiation. Reservoir accident causing it to empty.

[@paulbennell3313]

...So it's 47 years since this became a problem and nothing much has been done yet? Fantastic, bloody marvellous.

[@ryanm5217]

Im an EMT and frequent the channel. My partner and I drove by the West Lake Landfill and were talking about it. Not even an hour later your video popped up on my phone as a "suggestion" to watch. Coincidence?... I think not!

[@PlainlyDifficult]

It’s because us youtubers are always watching you

[@ryanm5217]

🤣

[@gregparker8349]

It’s because google is listening to everything you say through your phone. Talk about your roof leaking a couple times throughout the day and you’ll see ads for roofers that night on your KZbin videos...😐

[@ryanm5217]

@@gregparker8349 I thought it was ironic for the fact that I'm a pretty regular listener to the Plainly Difficult channel that he happened to release a story, the same day, about the same site I had been talking to my partner about earlier that day. But it is true... Google does track your every word and movement... I'm pretty sure they're coming for me 🤐

[@Almighty_Hebers]

I live just about 30 miles southwest of bridgeton, and work in the area. I'm grateful that you did a video about this! Thank you!

[@smokedog123456789]

I live and went to the school next to that land fill. On the mornings we’d have to run the mile the smell would be so bad and give us all tremendous headaches

[@annohalloran6020]

I love learning about all the technical details in your reports. Great work.

[@djohn4904]

Jesus ; finally something I haddnt heard about/ where did you find out about this...a magic list?

[@bossk501]

Awesome vid! As a local who actually had a chance to be on this landfill it a great video. You should touch on the other two sites that were effected in St. Louis by the Manhatten Project in the Coldwater Creek and Weldon Springs Site! Maybe even the Time Beach Disasters

[@paststeve1]

Thanks PD! This comment is to boost my digital buddy, Al Go-Rhythm!

[@PlainlyDifficult]

Thank you!

[@michaelearlgrey]

Ah big shout out to my home town of Cañon City! Thanks man. Your videos are the best of KZbin. We fought Cotter for decades. They claimed to be a uranium mill but it was just a dump. They bribed the EPA and CDPHE to get away with it for years. They finally shut down and demolished the plant but nobody will clean it up. They pocketed the money and left. I know of so many people with extremely rare medical conditions including family members who grew up in the contamination plume. Such a scar on a town that was otherwise a great place to grow up.

[@BrilliantDesignOnline]

Yeah, I was looking for some nuclear waste on craig's list, and whaddya know? Some guy called AEC is selling 116,000 tons! Too bad I did not see the ad sooner; Damn Continental Mining and Milling Company beat me to it, and what REALLY sucks is that is that they got it for only $126,500; that's like barely a $1 a ton!

[@headpox5817]

Why the hell would anyone want to buy nuclear waste anyway ? Surely you're just paying money for someone else's problem.

[@jamielacourse7578]

Thank you for more superfund stuff. It's more people oriented.

[@stormyskyz4251]

As someone from the St Louis area who worked in Bridgeton … the EPA and the landfill folks are still continually screwing this up. I feel for the residents.

[@blacksheep25251]

Holy Crap!!! I had to check twice because I thought I missed the intro. You don't mess around! Subbed!!

[@violenceisfun991]

You're right, sesenihC (

[@currentriver4951]

I use to live 6 or 7 miles from this site, and had no idea of it till now. A school sits right next to it. How does this compare to the fall out, that landed all through the midwest, during above ground nuke testing?

[@KB4QAA]

"How does a hole in the ground compare to a tiny amount of dust?". Sigh. This landfill is having minimal/no effect on the local area. Fallout from the Nevada test site had minimal radioactivity for most of the US. There are a few areas of that received somewhat higher levels. Still, levels were not high enough to be able to turn off street lights. People didn't drop dead or mutate into Gorgons. After half a century the residual radiation levels have dropped to a tiny fraction of what they were in the 50's. You can google for answers.

[@slavkopejic3140]

I recommend Veritasium's YT video on fallout "How Kodak Exposed The Atomic Bomb". Very interesting.

[@bellefastbelle5686]

@@KB4QAA yes, google for answers. Answers that are correct. There is a huge amount of contamination in several areas. It’s why I have no immune system. There’s an evac plan when the fire hits the waste. Not if, but when. Watch Atomic Homefront at the very least. Look at the Wikipedia articles on Coldwater Creek and the SLAP site. It isn’t that it isn’t harming the area, it’s that the issue is so big it’s hard to make any progress. www.coldwatercreekfacts.com/

[@joeblow5178]

@@KB4QAA America, a waste dump.

[@KB4QAA]

@@bellefastbelle5686 Well here is the Corps of Engineers final listing for SLAPS: "he remainder of SLAPS was remediated in accordance with the ROD. More than 600,000 cubic yards of radiologically contaminated material was removed from the SLAPS over a nine-year period. A formal closing ceremony took place May 30, 2007."

[@chrismiller7866]

Good to see st.louis finally getting some attention its been needing. Lived about 10 miles away from west lake and worked about 3 miles from here. Shits messed up so much stuff and its still quite bad. Not surprisingly theres a lot of superfund sites around stl.

[@dx1450]

It just makes me wonder how many sites like this exist around the world in other counties, who are doing absolutely nothing about it.

[@grahamfisher5436]

Google - *Fulbeck celebrate 30years nuclear waste* I grew up in Newark upon Trent. so was there at this time.. Google - HOKALO 😮

[@riinak7212]

Hard to make gently rolling hills look menacing, even with a Radiation Hazard sign on the fence, no matter what kind of music you put over it! lol. :)

[@ReverendTed]

5:04 - "Time to check out this dumpster fire" _Foreshadowing_ !

[@nullish0]

man your videos tickle my curiosity on all things nuclear. Absolute gold sir

[@Left-Earth]

_"Clean up your act, St. Louis !"_ *"People are getting sick, of your s***."* 😝

[@GameKing298]

Thank you for documenting this. St. Louis has been struggling with this for a long time

[@pseudotasuki]

An isotope with a long half-life is, by definition, not particularly dangerous except in extremely high quantities.

[@lesterscrugs2272]

That whole neighborhood has been fighting about this issue and the increase of cancer from the waste for so many years and trying to get this site cleaned up.

[@kk-gr3ly]

How to recognize that you live in Usa: Your have a literal nuclear dumpster fire on your backyard

[@tomh9391]

In Sacramento CA where I live there's a law saying that we can't have any nuclear waste or materials stored within 100 miles of the city.

[@John-B-Goodenough]

Bad take: Russia and to a extend Eastern Europe exist. Soviets gave 0 fucks lmao

[@chudleyflusher7132]

Wrong. That’s how you recognize that you’re in a republican state.

[@964cuplove]

Ah well in that aspect at least west and east go hand in hand… money rules the world and the ordinary people just don’t matter to the pricks running the show.

[@manmeetworld]

Actual nuclear dumpster fires take place in Russia 🪆🪆.

[@hollyblackwell1084]

My dad was one of the people that would monitor the site with a Geiger counter. He passed away almost 14 years ago from Anaplastic Thyroid Cancer, the rarest form of thyroid cancer. I believe that he did have thyroid cancer but the radiation mutated it. He passed away 4 months after diagnosis.

[@nick_dizzle]

Ya superfund sites would be cool. Unfortunately I got one here by house😞

[@MrJruta]

Same

[@emeraldgal6694]

I've got one in my town too

[@tgfabthunderbird1]

I love the blinking Thorium-230 blob thing...

[@willmcconnell6008]

I thought this seemed familiar. It was just back in the local news like a year or so ago for it's hazards. Yeah they've done pretty much nothing

[@sew3521]

I grew up right next to that landfill. Look up the neighborhood Spanish Village. It is less than a mile away.

[@kirknay]

Of course it had to be Missouri. Times Beach is another key example of our record of ecological disasters.

[@PlainlyDifficult]

It’s on my list the dioxin balls up

[@vampire_juicebox]

There's a concert venue not too far away from the west lake dump sight, so I've driven passed the place a few times before. Always found it interesting

[@aSinisterKiid]

lol someone made out in the deal. "Ah yes, I'll tell someone this glowing trash is worth 125k and then eventually someone dumb enough will take it off my hands"

[@Mezuzah87]

I'm pretty sure it was a contract for sale, to take and dispose of the waste.

[@dakotabeatty8858]

You know crazy thing is I work for that landfill. It’s now a transfer station to take trash to another landfill and I work that job. They got people that show up there every other day to check the radiation

[@Wafflepudding]

2:06 - That's what she said

[@thoughtexperimentsotherstu4680]

you know he had to do it, I mean someone had to

[@Meanie010]

I see you've met my ex.

[@thorbrandal1870]

Interesting video. Now I am a little freaked out. My family moved into the area (San Sevilla CT.) summer of '70 and moved out summer of '75. Guess where we liked to explore on a bike ride? The 'Dump'. Yeah, we rode our bikes in and around that dump. Earth City was just a couple of empty roads back then. And Spanish Village Park was just an empty lot with a dirt ramp at the end of the road. That dirt ramp was more dangerous to us kids that liked to jump their bikes. Pre bike helmet days. Good times!!!

[@DJAvren]

I know you're saying Superfund site, but I can't help but hear 'Super Fun' site.

[@davidclark4919]

Great reporting job, its amazing what happens to all of the waste!

[@thomaskositzki9424]

Thorium 230 looks so cute! I want one. But seriously: what is wrong with the USA and /utterly failed) enviromental protection?!?! Here in Germany anyone in charge who would act like that company or those offices would have been quartered. Not that we have our own issues, but that level of neglegence is practically unknown here.

[@kgfgfg1]

You just do Not know about it, but in East Germany there is a nukleare waste Site :) Same topic and context

[@thomaskositzki9424]

@@kgfgfg1 Hm. Any specifics? You don't mean Gorleben or Morsleben, do you?

[@kgfgfg1]

@@thomaskositzki9424 No, www.sueddeutsche.de/wissen/uranabbau-in-ostdeutschland-strahlende-landschaften-1.2421153

[@kgfgfg1]

Das war auch den DDR-Machthabern klar: Um die Brisanz des Bergbaus und die mögliche Vergiftung der Region zu verschleiern, wurde dem Bergbau der Name Wismut gegeben, nach einem Metall, das früher im Erzgebirge abgebaut und zu Legierungszwecken verwendet wurde. Messungen zur radioaktiven Belastung wurden geheim gehalten. Diese Verschleierungstaktik endete mit dem DDR-Regime - weitgehend jedenfalls. I do not see much of any difference from this USA Case to that one in Germany.. Just it was no private Company involved, granted.

[@thomaskositzki9424]

​@@kgfgfg1 (BTW I am German but I stay in English for others who might want to read along) Interesting, I never heard about Wismut even though I am into digging up such stuff. Thanks for sharing! :) I see some key differences, which make it a whole different story in my eyes: 1) That clusterfuck of a mess was caused by the East German regime, like so many others. I mean, uranium open pit mining? Using radioactive contaminated waste rock as filler in road construction?!? Never possible in the West, ever. No, the West was not at all eco or anything, but the sheer scale of enviromental destruction in the east was staggering. 2) Huge scale compared to West Lake. In the German case we talk about dozens of small Uranium mines and just as many landfills. The US seems to be incapable of even starting to clean up such a limited problem while the German goverment got cracking (sorry for my language, watching old Top Gear atm) directly after reunion. 3) This leads us to the massive efforts to clean that mess up, which used 5,8 billion Euro and is still ongoing. It is neither comprehensive nor perfect but a good effort, not at all the permanent and ongoing neglect seen in West Lake. Even the spokesperson of the citizens group in the news article said the efforts so far were good, but not enough so far. The Americans basically did nothing about their limited problem over the last decades. We got to work ASAP despite having the much, much bigger problem, spread over a dozen or so sites in two federal states. I stay by my original statement, that West Lake isn't possible* in Germany. * (never say never, so: very unlikely)

[@D60Ebby]

WOW, what a mess. I watch it twice to understand what was going on. I enjoy all your videos.

[@o.k125]

Woow

[@Voidhalen]

Great video thanks ! Just wish I had something to compare the radioactivity though. Or maybe a video explaining radioactive measurements I'll definitely watch that.

[@hypercomms2001]

3:35 nuclear regulatory commission, or the atomic energy commission?

[@mfree80286]

Depends on when. There were major changes over the years, and remember the Department of Energy where it all eventually folded together didn't exist until 1977... hell, the EPA didn't exist until 1970.

[@GigaDanMan]

I grew up not 5 miles from there. I give this video 3 thumbs up. 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻

[@violenceisfun991]

America isn't real so you are fictional Truman my friend

[@Leopardmadcat]

And absolutely nobody is being held responsible for this mess, as usual.

[@erichobbs4042]

Honestly, that is usually the most galling part.

[@peckishpagan]

I live next to a Superfund site. My county is one of the ones that is near a superfund site, but one of the cleanest counties in the U.S. There are several like this. It’s a testament to both the benefits of remediation and the amount of pollution that is still allowed into the environment. I still won’t drink water from my sink.

[@jenniferbaldini3527]

"...Meaning anything goes in the big hole..." "That's what she said". ~ Michael Scott, Dunder-Mifflin, Scranton. I know, I know but I couldnt NOT say it.😉

[@Geomanb]

LOL ! ^_^

[@gnarthdarkanen7464]

Yeah... SOMEBODY had to say it. ...thank the gods it wasn't me. ;o)

[@K-Riz314]

I am shocked at how many other PD fans are out there from around here. Neat! 😎