Midwest
Officials knew Manhattan Project chemicals disposed improperly at Missouri sites, documents reveal
Several moms in suburban St. Louis have been working to get toxic sites in the area cleaned up, a major undertaking to fix widespread contamination that some government officials apparently covered up for decades.
“This was the best kept secret of St. Louis. The Manhattan Project wasn’t well known here, and it’s still a pretty good secret here,” Just Moms STL co-founder Karen Nickel said.
Nickel formed her group alongside her neighbor, Dawn Chapman, in 2013.
“Over the years, we had heard bits and pieces of the story and what we thought was the story,” Nickel said.
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The two moms spent several years going through thousands of documents that revealed those in charge of disposing of toxic waste in Missouri likely knew that crew had mishandled those chemicals.
“Right away, we were going, ‘Oh my God. This is so different than what we thought,”’ Chapman said.
Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., said, over time, more details about the Manhattan Project in St. Louis came to light.
“As early as the 1960s, you had the public beginning to get some sense of it. But really, it wasn’t until the ‘80s and the ’90s that the full scope of this began to come into view,” Hawley said.
“As recently as last year, we got a new cache of documents that showed the full extent of the government’s knowledge and what the government knew years ago — 30, 40, 50 years ago — that they had poisoned the creek, that their landfill that they dumped the waste into was going to cause huge problems, environmental problems and health problems. And they lied about it.”
Coldwater Creek in St. Louis, an area where children and family visit, apparently was contaminated by toxic chemicals left behind by the Manhattan Project. The creek is now being sampled for radioactive material by the Army Corps of Engineers. (Army Corps of Engineers/Kay Drey Mallinckrodt Collection)
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Hawley is pushing to expand and extend the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act, which will expire this year. The legislation would make it so people who may have been sickened by chemicals in St. Louis and other areas could receive compensation from the government.
“We’ve come to find that St. Louis was a uranium processing site. So was Kentucky. So was Tennessee, that the extent of the testing that was done in the West was far greater than we knew,” Hawley said.
The documents included internal memos from Mallinckrodt Chemical Works, a company hired by the U.S. government to process chemicals for nuclear weapons. The cache also included testing and sampling from government agencies as well as warnings that sites exposed to those chemicals may not have been safe.
SEE THE DOCUMENTS BELOW. APP USERS: CLICK HERE.
“The evidence was there, the facts were there, and it told the story from beginning to end,” Nickel said.
Mallinckrodt Chemical Works in St. Louis worked to process uranium that would eventually help create the first sustained nuclear chain reaction. After the plant shut down, the company worked to dispose of the chemicals. An internal memo from 1949 revealed workers discussed health and safety concerns that came with where they stored the waste.
“Point No. 2 concerns the problem of the disintegrating K-65 drums at the airport,” the memo stated. “This is recognized as a severe problem.”
Federal officials first stored the waste at a site near St. Louis Airport. The location was near a creek that stretched 14 miles through North St. Louis County. The barrels were left out in the open and exposed to the elements.
“Right away, you could see that the government knew how dangerous this waste was,” Chapman said.
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Barrels of waste remained out in the open in Missouri after the shutdown of a chemical plant tied to the Manhattan Project. (Kay Drey Mallinckrodt Collection)
The internal memo from Mallinckrodt detailed concerns among workers that the chemicals could have leaked into the creek.”
The health hazard to workers handling the K-65 material, especially in broken drums, is much more serious and immediate than the possible hazard of stream pollution,” it said.
“They were so toxic that they were told, ‘Do not touch those. Those are too dangerous,’” Nickel said.
High water and flooding have been additional yearly concerns along Coldwater Creek.
“Of course, they wouldn’t put dangerous waste next to a creek that floods,” Chapman said. “They knew it was probably leaking into the creek, but they didn’t know how much.”
Army Corps of Engineers officials said because of the flooding throughout decades, their cleanup job today has been complex.
Flooding and high waters occur annually along the potentially contaminated Coldwater Creek of St. Louis. (Karen Nickel )
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“Wind and rain, and also flooding events, took some of those contaminants, and they were carried down the stream in the sediment and then deposited during flooding events and also just during the normal flow,” U.S. Army Corps of Engineers St. Louis District Program Manager Phil Moser said. “This is all historical contamination from decades ago, and that’s why it’s so difficult today finding this contamination.”
The Army Corps of Engineers has been sampling for radioactive material all along Coldwater Creek, some of which dated to before the St. Louis population boom.
“This was before homes were built. And lo and behold, in the late ‘50s and ’60s, homes were being built on top of this,” Nickel said.
Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, crews moved the waste to a different location near the airport and again left it out in the open.
“The controls back in the day were surely not what they are now. That’s why we’re in the current situation,” Moser said.
Crews stored the Manhattan Project chemicals at multiple sites around St. Louis. (Fox News)
Advocates and lawmakers, including Hawley, said the cleanup could move faster.
“For years, the people of St. Louis were told, ‘Don’t worry. There’s no significant radiation.’ Or they were told, ‘Hey, we’ve cleaned it all up.’ In fact, those things were not true,” Hawley said.
“It was taking years to do testing and really get the scope and magnitude of how contaminated North County is,” Chapman said.
Testing from almost 50 years ago found possible contamination in parts of the creek. A 1977 report from the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee detailed samples from Coldwater Creek. Testing in drainage ditches, which carried run-off water into the creek, showed average radiation levels were almost five times higher than usual.
“We haven’t seen that level at these sites, since I’ve been here for sure,” Moser said.
In the 1970s, workers moved the waste once again, this time to West Lake Landfill in Bridgeton, Missouri.
“It is not possible in this United States of America to purchase a home next to a site that has Manhattan Project radioactive waste just sitting up for decades,” Chapman said.
Chadman, Nickel and thousands of others eventually would call neighborhoods near the West Lake Landfill home.
“The time to act is now. This should have been done 50 years ago, but it hasn’t been. So, now it’s time to do it,” Hawley said.
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NBA Playoffs biggest surprises
For the Win’s Prince Grimes and USA TODAY Sports’ Lorenzo Reyes break down the biggest surprises from the first week of the 2026 NBA Playoffs.
The Minnesota Timberwolves have dodged a serious blow to star guard Anthony Edwards, but his status for the rest of the NBA playoffs remains in question.
Medical imaging tests revealed that Edwards, the NBA’s third-leading scorer this season, suffered a bone bruise and hyperextension in his left knee on Saturday, April 25, in Game 4 of Minnesota’s first-round playoff series against the Nuggets.
The results were first reported by ESPN.
Although sources tell the network Edwards is expected to be sidelined multiple weeks, he did avoid a more serious ligament injury that would’ve ended his postseason.
The news comes as the No. 6-seeded Timberwolves have taken a commanding 3-1 series lead in the first round over the No. 3 Denver Nuggets. The Timberwolves are also dealing with depth concerns in the backcourt, after guard Donte DiVincenzo suffered a torn right Achilles tendon one quarter before Edwards sustained his injury.
The Timberwolves have ramped up their defense and are playing their best basketball of the season. After making consecutive trips to the Western Conference Finals, Minnesota is looking to break through this season with its first NBA Finals appearance in franchise history. Although the Western Conference is stacked with talented teams, the Timberwolves have been very impressive to open the 2026 playoffs. To pose a legitimate threat, however, they will need Edwards to be healthy, especially now that DiVincenzo will be out indefinitely.
Anthony Edwards’ injury in Game 4
The injury ocurred with 2:45 left in the first half, when Edwards jumped vertically to defend a Cameron Johnson layup during a fastbreak drive. When Edwards landed, his left knee appeared to hyperextend as his weight came down, and he immediately grabbed at the area, writhing in apparent discomfort. Edwards slapped the court a few times in obvious frustration.
Athletic trainers rushed over as Edwards popped up to his feet. The trainers helped Edwards hobble off the floor, as he did not put any weight on the injured leg.
The trainers helped him toward the tunnel, though they didn’t immediately usher Edwards to the locker room, momentarily examining him in the tunnel.
After Minnesota’s 112-96 victory in Game 4, Timberwolves coach Chris Finch didn’t have any updates on the severity of Edwards’ injury, noting that he was being evaluated.
“I saw Ant (at halftime) and kind of dapped him up,” Timberwolves forward Julius Randle said after Saturday’s game. “There’s not much to say in those moments. I’ll give him a call tonight, or a text and just check up on him.”
In 61 games this season, Edwards averaged a career-high 28.8 points (which ranked third in the NBA behind only Luka Dončić and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander), 5.0 rebounds and 3.7 assists per game. His field goal percentage (48.9%) and 3-point percentage (39.9%) were also career bests.
In February, he was selected to his fourth consecutive All-Star team.
Contributing: Steve Gardner
UPDATE | The Kansas City, Missouri, Police Department said 13-year-old Jeremiah Mason has been safely located.
ORIGINAL STORY | The Kansas City, Missouri, Police Department is asking for the public’s help to locate a missing 13-year-old boy.
Jeremiah Mason was last seen around 2:15 p.m. Saturday near the 3400 block of Wyoming Street in KCMO.
Jeremiah is 5 feet tall and weighs 100 pounds, with black hair and brown eyes. He was last seen wearing a green camouflage hoodie, black pants and black shoes.
Anyone with information about Jeremiah should call the KCPD Missing Persons Unit at 816-234-5043 or 911.
—
If you have any information about a crime, you may contact your local police department directly. But if you want or need to remain anonymous, you should contact the Greater Kansas City Crime Stoppers Tips Hotline by calling 816-474-TIPS (8477), submitting the tip online or through the free mobile app at P3Tips.com. Depending on your tip, Crime Stoppers could offer you a cash reward.
Annual homicide details and data for the Kansas City area are available through the KSHB 41 News Homicide Tracker, which was launched in 2015. Read the KSHB 41 News Mug Shot Policy.
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