Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster says a weekend brush fire near a suburban St. Louis landfill makes a pressing case for a federal remedy to the area where a slow-burning underground fire could threaten a cache of Cold War-era nuclear waste.
Koster says he's relieved that the Environmental Protection Agency's studies show no immediate public danger from the West Lake Landfill near Bridgeton.
Government officials have quietly adopted an emergency plan in case the federal Superfund site's smoldering embers ever reach the nuclear waste. But Koster wants the EPA to figure out a way "without delay" to keep it from getting to that point.
He says Saturday's brush fire shows how quickly flames unexpectedly can surface.
