JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — Five years ago, Gov. Mike Parson signed legislation aimed at providing state funding to help investigate areas of the state exposed to radioactive waste.
But, despite ongoing concerns about the presence of radioactive material left over from the St. Louis region's role in creating the nuclear bomb, the program championed by former Sen. Maria Chappelle-Nadal, D-University City, was never funded.
According to the Missouri Department of Natural Resources, the Radioactive Waste Investigation Fund was established in the state's accounting system once the bill was signed in 2018.
"However, to date no transfers from the Hazardous Waste Fund have been deposited into that fund, nor have any appropriations been established from the fund to investigate concerns of exposure to radioactive waste," said Brian M. Quinn, information officer for DNR's Division of Environmental Quality.
DNR spokeswoman Connie Patterson said the agency did not request funding at the time because the state's hazardous waste fund "had been experiencing severe fund solvency issues."
Although the state is now sitting on a significant revenue surplus due to the post-pandemic economy, Patterson said officials will not speculate whether the program will be funded in next year's budget.
On Friday, Chappelle-Nadal called the situation "a terrible scenario."
"I call it willful negligence," the former lawmaker said.
The lack of action serves as another example of a muddled government response to the deadly contamination left over from the Atomic Age.
A new report this week from The Missouri Independent, MuckRock and The Associated Press shows the federal government and companies involved in nuclear bomb production and atomic waste storage sites knew of risks to workers and the public early on.
The report brought a renewed round of promises by politicians to address the contamination, including U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., U.S. Rep. Cori Bush, D-Mo., Attorney General Andrew Bailey and a host of state lawmakers from the areas affected by the cancer-causing material.
Chappelle-Nadal said the blame and the answers do not lie solely with the federal government.
"It's all levels of government that have some responsibility to address this," she said.
The measure Parson signed but didn't fund was supposed to allocate $150,000 annually to allow environmental regulators to probe sites like the West Lake Landfill in north St. Louis County, where radioactive material was dumped more than 40 years ago.
The DNR measure was among the first five bills signed by Parson in June 2018. He had just become governor following the resignation of scandal-plagued former Gov. Eric Greitens.
The governor's signing of the legislation came on the same week that a federal report was issued saying people who lived near or played in Coldwater Creek in north St. Louis County from the 1960s to the 1990s may have been exposed to radioactive contaminants, increasing their risk of developing cancer.
Chappelle-Nadal spent much of her tenure in the Senate and House pushing for tougher laws aimed at addressing the World War II-era weapon production that resulted in nuclear waste being dumped at sites near the St. Louis Lambert International Airport.
At the time of the signing, Chappelle-Nadal said she was pleasantly surprised because she and Parson had locked horns over the years. He previously served in the Senate and also presided over the chamber during his tenure as lieutenant governor.
In September 2017, after Chappelle-Nadal had written on Facebook that she hoped President Donald Trump would be assassinated, Parson called for her ouster from the Senate.
"I have no desire to sit in the same chamber with an elected official who has called for the assassination of the president of the United States," Parson said at the time.
Chappelle-Nadal removed the post and apologized but was stripped of her committee assignments by then-Senate Minority Leader Gina Walsh, D-Bellefontaine Neighbors.
