Federal government completes cleanup of contaminated soil near Florissant school

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in St. Louis has completed the relocation of nearly eight Olympic-sized swimming pools containing soil contaminated with radioactive waste around an elementary school in north St. Louis County.

Officials with the Corps' environmental remediation program announced Wednesday the completion of the project at the site near Coldwater Creek and Jana Elementary School in Florissant.

“Our main goal here is to ensure that all contaminated sites are fully rehabilitated to preserve the well-being of the community,” said Jeremy Idleman, a spokesperson for to clean. “That’s our mission and that’s what we’re going to continue to do.”

The site near the school is one of several sites the Corps is rehabilitating along the 14-mile Coldwater Creek, which runs through northern St. Louis County, near Florissant, Hazelwood and the International Airport. Saint-Louis Lambert.

The waterway is contaminated with radioactive waste. In the mid-20th century, companies manufacturing atomic weapons disposed of their nuclear waste north of St. Louis. This waste ultimately contaminated Coldwater Creek and some surrounding areas. The Army Corps of Engineers worked to remove contaminated materials in segments.

Hazelwood School District officials closed Jana in 2022 after a private company discovered radioactive contamination inside the school. Other reports found that there were no dangerous levels of radiation inside the building.

Despite this, district officials said Wednesday they have no plans to reopen the school.

Former Jana PTA President Ashley Bernaugh said the announcement marks just a small part of what will be a long process to clean up all the contamination around Coldwater Creek.

“Until all of these places are actually cleaned – to near residential standards versus industrial standards – the level of cleaning will not yield immediate results,” she said.

The local community should be involved in deciding what will happen to the Jana Elementary School building now that the site has been rehabilitated, Bernaugh said.

“It deserves a longer conversation,” she said. “This is a building that we all paid for as part of our commitment to education and public resources. So I think having a conversation about what happens to this building with the community…. will continue to be important in the future.

Idleman said that although the size of the project was relatively small, removing the earth was difficult because it was far underground and along a steep creek bank.

The increased public scrutiny motivated the agency to work quickly, he said. Sometimes workers spend 10 hours a day to complete the project.

“That’s one of the contributing factors,” Idleman said. “Due to the public outcry, we have made it our priority to move forward and get started with this property.”

The dirt was loaded into wagons and taken out of state, he said.

Environmental workers have always worked upstream and downstream to minimize recontamination of sites while cleaning the creek bed, he said.

The Army Corps is now focused on removing soil near McDonnell Boulevard, north of the airport.