The bad news is that there’s an underground landfill fire in St. Louis, and it’s currently 1,200 feet from a radioactive waste dump. The worse news is that Rams Park sits close to the potential intersection of burning trash and radiation.
Via the Chicago Tribune, a disaster plan discovered this week by KMOX radio in St. Louis, the possibility exists for the release of a smoke plume containing radioactive fallout -- and it would “most likely occur with little or no advance warning.”
An evacuation/shelter-in-place plan was developed last October, in order “to save lives in the event of a catastrophic event” resulting from the smoldering, below-ground fire reaching the radioactive waste.
The fire is happening at the Bridgeton Landfill. Which sits next to theWest Lake Landfill. Which contains radioactive waste from uranium processing.
Bridgeton Landfill has become notorious for its pungent odor. As someone who has been to Rams Park in recent years tells PFT, when the wind is blowing toward the team’s facility, the odor is “unbearable.” It’s believed that the Rams check to see whether it’s a downwind-from-the-stink day before bringing free agents to Rams Park. (If they don’t already do that, they probably should.)
Odor is one thing. The danger of a “catastrophic event” is another. Here’s hoping that they get the fire under control before it migrates to the radioactive waste and that, if they don’t, an effective plan will be in place to get everyone to safety, quickly.