{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.hawley.senate.gov/hawley-urges-epa-clean-west-lake-landfill-immediately/", "Hawley Urges EPA Clean Up West Lake Landfill Immediately", "2023-11-02", "2023", "2023-11", "Republican", "Senate", "MO", "Josh Hawley", "H001089", "www.hawley.senate.gov", "hawley", "https://www.hawley.senate.gov/press-releases/page/", "scraper", "Today U.S. Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) questioned Bruno Pigott, Principal Deputy Assistant Administrator for the Office of Water at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Senator Hawley called on the EPA to immediately clean up the radioactive contamination at the West Lake Landfill Superfund Site in Bridgeton, Mo.\n\n\u201cIt\u2019s probably no coincidence that the folks who live in this area are not big-time donors to political parties, they\u2019re not big-time party activists, these are working people and they have been taken advantage of for years. And the government, for years, has just expected them to live with it\u2026,\u201d said Senator Hawley. \u201cThis has got to stop, and we need the EPA to clean this site up.\u201d\n\nWatch the full exchange here or below.\n\nBackground\n\nSenator Hawley has consistently advocated on behalf of the Coldwater Creek community and all Missourians impacted by government-caused nuclear contamination. Most recently, Senator Hawley secured President Biden\u2019s endorsement of his legislation to compensate victims of nuclear radiation exposure.\n\nOn July 27, 2023, in a strong bipartisan vote, Senator Hawley secured passage of an amendment to the FY 2024 NDAA that would provide compensation to victims of government-caused nuclear contamination. The legislation extends the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA) to cover victims of improperly-stored nuclear waste in affected areas in the St. Louis region. The measure\u2014which was cosponsored by U.S. Senators Ben Ray Luj\u00e1n (D-N.M.), Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), and Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.)\u2014also reauthorized and strengthened the RECA program to cover more impacted Americans from nuclear tests along with uranium miners.\n\nEarlier in July, Senator Hawley sent a letter to the Department of Energy (DOE), urging additional testing for radioactive contamination at a site in St. Charles County, Mo., after a review of the Weldon Spring site in 2021 offered an extensive critique of the DOE\u2019s cleanup and monitoring efforts there. Senator Hawley also sent a letter to the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Chairman Senator Joe Manchin (D-W.V.) urging him to convene a committee hearing to discuss the government-caused nuclear contamination of the St. Louis area. In addition, Senator Hawley penned separate letters to the United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), DOE, and EPA, demanding answers from the government about the nuclear contamination.\n\nIn April, Senator Hawley\u2019s legislation mandating the clean up of Jana Elementary School in the Hazelwood School District and radioactive waste testing passed the U.S. Senate and Biden\u2019s Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm also vowed to support it.", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T18:49:58Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.hawley.senate.gov/hawley-urges-epa-clean-west-lake-landfill-immediately/"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.0004150681197643, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}