ST. LOUIS—A few months after Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) administrator Lee Zeldin committed more workers than ever before to clean-up the West Lake landfill Superfund site, Spectrum News caught up with him while covering a new EPA food waste prevention initiative.
So far, EPA’s remediation plan is on schedule.
“I’ve been in this region many times. The regional leadership knows every time that I step foot inside of this region, I’m going to be asking for an update on what’s going on at West Lake,” said Lee Zeldin, EPA administrator. “And the update each time has been that everything is on track moving forward. No issues to report.”
Earlier this year, Zeldin was moved by victims’ testimonies about the widespread impact the contamination had.
“There are times where you hear stories from a person who’s afflicted with a particular disease because of contamination—But we were hearing from individuals talking about the half a dozen different ailments that they have and the many other ailments that inflicted other members of their family and neighbors. The severity was conveyed certainly loud and clearly that day.”
This revelation led Zeldin to swiftly push for an expedited remediation of the landfill.
“The pre-construction work has been ramping up since I was here earlier this year. It was so powerful to hear these stories.”
Per his assessment, Zeldin expects the site to begin excavation in late 2027, two years earlier than initially planned because the EPA and potentially responsible parties are completing key tasks concurrently and identifying document review efficiencies which accelerated the timeline. Specifically, the two determined a potential initiation of pre-excavation confirmation sampling could occur while the Remedial Design is being completed.
“I was really happy,” Zeldin adds. “And the community is really happy to see that timeline get expedited. The reports that I’ve gotten back since then is the team at EPA working with the community continue to move forward. I stay on top of it.”
