StLouis-Help us keep rad waste out of the floodplain

Your monthly contribution of $10, $20 or more makes a difference!   Our monthly giving program allows us to spend less time fundraising and more time  promoting efficiency first and the reduction of dirty, dangerous and expensive power.  Click here to make a monthly gift. Click here to make a one-time gift.  Cancer mapping on Facebook A 1988 graduate of McClure High School, Jenell W. started the Coldwater Creek Just the Facts Facebook page to begin mapping incidences of rare illnesses from her classmates after her sister found that incidence rates for certain health conditions in the small population was a statistical impossibility. Coldwater Creek is one of the sites being addressed under the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers FUSRAP (Formerly Utilized Site Remedial Action Program) because of radioactive contamination. The other St. Louis FUSRAP sites include the downtown Mallinckrodt plant (now Covidien), the Lambert Airport Site, and the Latty Ave. site in Hazelwood. Jenell is now mapping the cancers among the population of people who lived along Coldwater Creek. Sadly, the government has no mechanism to conduct such a cancer cluster study because impacts from radiation exposures are often seen two decades later, after children have grown up, moved away & had their own children. Cancer data is recorded in areas where people live - not where they used to live. Jenell's use of Facebook and her high school yearbook to investigate a dispersed population is unique. More than 700 cancers have been recorded to date; as well as problems with conception, immune system disorders, and three cases of conjoined twins.  Donate Now Become A Member  Volunteer  Forward  to a Friend        Like Us on Facebook      Follow Us on Twitter  In this Letter Cancer mapping Urgent Action in the Floodplain Special Thank you Legislative Update For over a decade the Missouri Coalition for the Environment has worked to bring attention to the health and environmental threats of radioactive wastes in the Missouri River floodplain. Now an underground landfill fire has all eyes on the Westlake Landfill Superfund Site. We need your help to keep the pressure on until the radioactive wastes are removed. URGENT ACTION NEEDED! Westlake Landfill Superfund Site - Radioactive Since 1973 By now, you may have seen the local and national news coverage of the Westlake Landfill. MCE is the only public interest organization consistently pressing for removal of the radioactive wastes. We need your help to: Mobilize and empower community member to keep the responsible parties accountable for contaminating our community; Facilitate quick analysis of the technical data generated around this complex issue; and Broaden our reach to public officials & the press. Support MCE's efforts to protect the people who live near the Westlake Landfill Superfund Site and move radioactive wastes away from people and water. While the radioactive wastes at the Westlake Landfill Superfund Site in Bridgeton have been languishing under U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) inaction, a subsurface fire has been smoldering in an adjacent landfill for over two years, unbeknownst to the people living closest to it. Now the fire is within 1,200 feet of the radioactive material. Your support for MCE has enabled us to take the lead on monitoring this volatile situation and to speak up for removal of the wastes at the Westlake Landfill. This community needs our help more than ever. And we need yours. Our actions so far have included: Opposing the EPA decision to leave the radioactive wastes in the floodplain in 2008, leading to the EPA's current reconsideration. Collaborating with unions & other advocacy groups to turn out 350 people to the last EPA meeting on the Westlake Landfill. Demanding, with success, that the Dept. of Natural Resources (DNR) and the St. Louis Co. Dept. of Health conduct air testing after residents reported headaches and illnesses in pets & children. Requesting full disclosure of the state's testing protocols and data, and ongoing site monitoring.  A very spcial thank you.... to Kay Drey, whose hard work and generous support has made MCE a leading force against dirty, dangerous and expensive nuclear power. DIRTY - DANGEROUS - EXPENSIVE Because St. Louis still bears the burden of the very first radioactive waste created in the atomic age and there is no solution to the problem of radioactive wastes anywhere, we have doggedly opposed nuclear power as an expensive, dangerous, dirty and false energy option. The nuclear industry is pushing for the new regulations to be expedited at the cost of science and safety, but MCE, by joining a nationwide effort to establish "high-level" nuclear waste storage policy at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), is pushing back. Your financial support allows MCE to engage on issues at the state level that impact national policy like long term radioactive waste storage. ENERGY ISSUES IN THE 2013 GENERAL ASSEMBLY                   MCE defended our voter approved ban on Construction Work In Progress (CWIP) during the 2009, 2011, and 2012 state legislative sessions. Our state's ban on CWIP charges has helped keep electricity rates low and stopped monopoly utilities from charging customers in advance for the promise of nuclear power in the future.             The risk of financing a nuclear reactor doesn't change when shifted to utility customers; it only changes the risk takers. The nuclear financing scheme is to socialize risk while privatizing profits. Upcoming Legislative Issues Against - Senate Bill 207 is a work-around of Missouri's ban on CWIP that will force captive customers to pay for a new nuclear reactorwith up to a 10% increase on electric bills. Support - Senate Bill 277, sponsored by Sen. Jason Holsman, would establish an Energy Efficiency Portfolio Standard, requiring energy efficiency investments from Missouri's energy providers. Energy efficiency is the cheapest, cleanest, and safest form of meeting our energy demand. Missouri ranks 44/50 states by the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy. Against - House Bill 44 would count 100-year-old hydroelectric dams as new renewable energy instead of spurring new clean energy jobs and investments as Prop. C intended. Please consider a monthly gift or  a one-time gift  to support our efforts to remove radioactive wastes from the floodplain and reduce dirty, dangerous and expensive nuclear power in Missouri.  100% of your contribution goes to fighting these issues in Missouri.   However you choose to give, we are grateful for your contributions and support! Sincerely,  Heather B. Navarro Executive Director   Ed Smith Safe Energy Director

Missouri Coalition for the Environment | 6267 Delmar Blvd., Ste. 2E | St. Louis | MO | 63130