Chuck Raasch, St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Activists working with CHEJ around the West Lake Landfill controversy in St. Louis and in Flint, Mich., have joined forces to put pressure on the federal Environmental Protection Agency to respond more forcefully to both environmental crises. An article in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch covers a joint press conference between Flint activists and JUST MOMS stl, a group organized to force the EPA to reduce the threat of radioactive waste at West Lake Landfill.
At the press conference, about a dozen representatives said they will picket EPA headquarters because of EPA administrator Gina McCarthy’s unwillingness to meet with them or to act more urgently.
That standoff with the EPA is not new, and McCarthy has previously refused to meet with representatives. What is new is the linkage between West Lake and Flint, where the EPA and other local, state and federal authorities have been under fire for allowing lead exposure in water there to persist, endangering the health of families in that community.
Flint activists say recalcitrance and stonewalling from government agencies, and especially the EPA, have left residents exposed to cancer-causing lead and other health problems.
The two groups will share share health and other information, and continue to join forces to pressure the EPA.
To read the full story, click here.