Quotidian Anthropocenes

On the first day of the field campus, we visited the St. Louis Airport Project Site (SLAPS), where we met with project managers from the Army Corps of Engineers, who are currently removing residual waste from the Mallinckrodt Chemical Company’s uranium refining during the 1940s and 1950s in St. Louis. Our discussion at SLAPS centered around the goals and frustrations of the remediation process -- a process which, already over-schedule, will likely continue for several more years.

On day one, we visited the Weldon Spring Containment cell in St. Charles, Missouri. At the height of the Cold War’s nuclear arms race in the 1950s, Mallinckrodt relocated uranium production from downtown St. Louis to a new refinery in St. Charles. Following the plant’s closure, the site was converted into a 42-acre containment cell designed to contain 1.5 million cubic yards of radioactive material for 1,000 years. At the Weldon Springs Interpretive Center, we learned from museum guides about their methods for informing the public about the legacy of the uranium industry and nuclear waste in the St. Louis region.

Photo taken at Weldon Spring Interpretive center, St. Louis, MO.

Image of a bird house at Weldon Springs Mound, St. Louis, MO.

During the field campus, we also heard from St. Louis locals about their own methods of documenting, analyzing and describing environmental issues in the region. In a discussion moderated by Tony West, director of The Safe Side of the Fence, we met with Brian Zink, an attorney at Atomic Weapons Employee Consultants; Wendy Verhoff, a historian of radioactive waste in St. Louis; and Denise Brock, the Ombudsman to National Institute for for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH).

The discussion centered on the legacy of uranium refining in the city, and more than half a million nuclear workers who developed exposure-related illnesses. Much of the talk focused on Denise Brock’s key role in the passage of the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act (EEOICPA). This legislation ensures that compensation and payment of medical expenses are available to workers and their families who developed illnesses due to exposure to radioactive substances at certain nuclear facilities.

St. Louis West Lake landfill superfund site.

Photo of the entrance to the Wood River Refinery Museum in St. Louis, Mo.

Photo of an illustration found in Wood River Refinery Museum in St. Louis, Mo.

Photo collection at Wood River Museum.

Image taken at Cahokia Mounds, St. Louis, MO.