HAZELWOOD, Mo. – The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is working with an outside party to help meet the needs and answer questions from residents living near the contaminated areas of Coldwater Creek or the airport’s radioactive sites.

Residents living near the two sites might soon hear about the program called the Technical Assistance Needs Assessment (TANA).

“It’s an outside independent company that is going to interview (you) and ask what your needs are. How do you want to get information? Who do you get your information from?” Karen Nickel, Just Moms STL co-founder, said. “People can use their voice and I think that is the most important thing right now.”

Nickel said TANA opens communication between residents, the EPA, and the Army Corps of Engineers.

The EPA said they are already getting feedback about the sites.

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“Potentially translating things into different languages, maybe coming out and presenting information to the community, such as a superfund basics course or the different agencies, how they are a part of the site, because there is a lot of different agencies involved,” said Jessica Evans, community involvement coordinator for EPA Region 7. She

Evans said they’ve seen success with TANA at other sites around St. Louis.

“With Westlake, they wanted more updates on the site. So, site progress, things like that. So, we have increased the Westlake updates that we send out frequently,” she said.

The EPA said residents wanting to provide feedback will need to sign up for interviews. Once the interviews are complete, the EPA will send the documents, feedback, and recommendations to the Army Corps of Engineers.

“This is all about people being knowledgeable and being able to use their voice,” Nickel said.

For more information about the interviews, contact evans.jessica@epa.gov.

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