Congresswoman Cori Bush Demands Answers from the Government Accountability Office on Cleanup of Coldwater Creek in St. Louis
WASHINGTON, DC – Today, in a House Committee on Oversight and Reform Hearing, Congresswoman Cori Bush (MO-01) questioned Gene L. Dodaro, Comptroller of the United States and head of the Government Accountability Office on the lack of funding and effort dedicated to cleaning up Coldwater Creek in North St. Louis County – advocating on behalf of residents concerned about the dangers of living near the tributary.
Coldwater Creek was contaminated in the 1940s and 1950s when nuclear waste from World War II weapons production was dumped at two sites in north St. Louis, next to the creek. A report released by the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry in 2019 found that people with regular exposure to the creek between the 1960s and the 1990s may have an increased risk of developing cancer. This was not news to dozens of residents who had already contracted rare cancers themselves. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has been removing contaminated soil from various sites around the creek for more than two decades, but they estimate it will be decades more before cleanup efforts are complete in some Black and brown communities.
A full transcript of her questioning and exchange with the witness is available below.
Transcript: Congresswoman Cori Bush Questions Gene L. Dodaro, Comptroller General of the United States and head of the Government Accountability Office and Mark Gaffigan, Managing Director of GAO’s Natural Resources and Environment Team. (March 2, 2021)
CONGRESSWOMAN CORI: Thank you Madam Chair. St. Louis and I thank you for convening this hearing today and thank you to Mr. Dodaro for being here.
I rise today for the thousands of people who urgently need a voice in this room. The environmental violence of the Departments of Energy and Defense has emblazoned my community with extremely hazardous radioactive waste.
Nothing could fully capture what it was like for people to find out that nearly everyone from their high school was sick with rare cancers or dead. That is real life for people along Coldwater Creek in St. Louis.
The Department of Energy knew that Coldwater Creek was dangerously contaminated in the 1960s.
Mr. Dodaro, based on what you know about DOE environmental liabilities, would you guess that the Creek is cleaned up today?
MR. DODARO: Well, there hasn’t been as much progress as I think there needs to be made, and the cost of the government to clean up keeps going up, despite spending billions of dollars because they don’t really have a risk-based approach to addressing those issues.
CONGRESSWOMAN CORI: Well, yeah, you’re right. It is certainly not. The CDC has estimated that as many as 350,000 people in North County, my community, have been exposed to radioactive waste. The Creek runs through the Florissant area, and several other towns in my district.
We are not talking about a distant problem - I am in the room actually. I lived by this Creek and the basement of my townhouse would flood with potentially radioactive water all of the time.
My son’s room was in that basement.
Mr. Dodaro, based on what you know about these two departments, would you take over the lease at that townhouse or would you take your kids to the nearby playground?
MR. DODARO: Based on the circumstances that you’re explaining, I don’t think so.
CONGRESSWOMAN CORI: Well, I’m a nurse, I would never let you do it.
One day I opened my door and there were butterflies, dozens, lying dead on the ground with their wings open, like nothing I had ever seen. I realized something must be very, very wrong, but had no idea what was happening. Most people still don’t know what is happening even right now!
The Army Corps of Engineers is slowly conducting a cleanup in St. Louis under the FUSRAP program. They have estimated that some Black and brown communities won’t be cleaned up for 20 years. Eyewitness accounts state that the Corps and contractors like those mentioned in the report have been seen picking random houses on a street to test soil, without even notifying neighbors who are growing gardens. There are still no signs, no signs, at the Creek warning people of the dangers.
Mr. Dodaro, would you say that the DOE has enough money to post some type of warning signs along a Creek that is giving people rare cancers? Or at least what we believe to be causing it.
MR. DODARO: I’ll ask Mr. Gaffigan to answer further, but the DOE has one of the largest budgets in the government so I would think they could afford a sign.
MR. GAFFIGAN: I would only add the reason we put this on the list is because we think this is just the tip of the iceberg. We think there are a lot more places like Coldwater Creek around the country that need to be identified and we need to figure out to what degree we’re going to clean them up.
CONGRESSWOMAN CORI: Thank you. The Department of Energy is a quote “responsible party” for Coldwater Creek. We have heard that the DOE set aside the maximum amount of money but then deemed it was not all needed.
My constituents and I, we want to know: Where does the supposedly unneeded money go, Mr. Dodaro?
MR. DODARO: I ask Mr. Gaffigan on that one.
MR. GAFFIGAN: Well, you know, we’ve been critical that DOE has not taken a risk-based approach, you know, identifying all the sites throughout the country and treating it in a sort of risk-based approach. And, you know, the fact that communities are feeling left out is not a good sign.
CONGRESSWOMAN CORI: No, it’s not. Thank you. I have one final question.
Mr. Dodaro, if you were me, representing hundreds of thousands of people with potential or confirmed toxic exposure, what would you do to massively expedite DOE?
MR. DODARO: Well, I mean I think Congress is empowered to get answers from DOE about what their plans are and what they’re intended to do. So, if I was a member of Congress, I’d insist that they provide answers to questions that satisfy you about what their plans are and what the time frames are for implementing those plans.
CONGRESSWOMAN CORI: Thank you, Mr. Dodaro, I will be following up with further questions, a lot of questions and I yield back.
To watch the Congresswoman’s full exchange, click here.
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Congresswoman Cori Bush represents Missouri’s First Congressional District in the United States House of Representatives. She serves on the House Judiciary Committee and the House Committee on Oversight and Reform. She is also a Deputy Whip of the Congressional Progressive Caucus and a proud member of the Congressional Black Caucus. She is a registered nurse, single mother, and an ordained pastor. Following the murder of Michael Brown Jr. by a now-terminated Ferguson police officer, she became a civil rights activist and community organizer fighting for justice for Black lives on the streets of Missouri and across the country.