St. Charles County residents can find out how to apply for federal radiation exposure compensation
ST. PETERS, Mo—The public is invited to attend a town hall forum on how to apply for the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA), which Congress expanded this summer to include four zip codes in St. Charles County.
The event is scheduled to take place at the Spencer Road Library Branch, 427 Spencer Road, St. Peters, on October 14, from 6-8 p.m. Media invited to come a little early to grab interviews with key speakers before program starts.
“We want to make sure that everybody who has been exposed to nuclear radiation because of the government’s negligence gets the relief that they deserve,” says U.S. Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri who sponsored the legislation.
The four St. Charles County zip codes covered by the law are:
- 63367 (Lake Saint Louis)
- 63368 (O’Fallon, Dardenne Prairie)
- 63341 (Defiance)
- 63304 (St. Peters, Weldon Spring, Cottleville)
The four zip codes were chosen to cover people who may have lived, worked or gone to school near the EPA Superfund sites in Weldon Spring, where Mallinckrodt Chemical Company refined uranium during the Cold War era. The site was later closed and abandoned for many years, before it was remediated and capped with a mountain of rocks.
“This is a federally funded and federally run program,” says County Executive Steve Ehlmann. “But our role is also important. The County has some documents needed to qualify, documents to show you lived in the affected zip codes.”
State Representative Tricia Byrnes, a long-time advocate on the issue, will MC. County officials including Recorder of Deeds Mary Dempsey and Elections Director Kurt Bahr, will attend to explain how to get county records to apply. Representatives of Hawley’s office will be there, along with staff of the St. Charles City-County Library system, which is hosting the event.
Under the program, which covers a total of 21 zip codes in the St. Louis region, people can apply for financial compensation from the federal government if they or a relative got cancer after exposure to radiation from the nation’s nuclear program.