Vacant apartment clubhouse near Coldwater Creek to be demolished because of nuclear contamination 5%
By Sarah Fentem57%
5/8/2026, 8:50:32 PM
BS Summary: This article contains 24 faulty reasoning types, including Availability Heuristic, Framing Effect, and Post Hoc (False Cause), with Appeal to Authority as the most egregious example at 34.8% saturation with 179 hits. Analysis detected 915 faulty-reasoning hits from 514 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 20.3% and a BS Rank of 5% (20,834 of 21,886 articles). This article is better (less manipulative) than 95.20% of the article peer group.
The U.S.
Army Corps of Engineers in St.
Louis plans to demolish a clubhouse in a vacant Hazelwood apartment complex in north St.
Louis County after radioactive material was found under the building.
The building is in the floodplain of Coldwater Creek, a 19-mile waterway that was contaminated after improperly stored nuclear waste from the Manhattan Project leached into the surrounding land and water.
As the creek flooded, the contamination spread to the creek’s banks and surrounding areas.
A 2025 report on samples near the clubhouse found increased levels of an isotope of thorium, a radioactive element that's sometimes used as nuclear fuel, a spokesman for the Corps' St.
Louis district said in an email.
The demolition near North Hanley and Dunn Roads is part of the Corps’ ongoing efforts to clean up potentially dangerous waste originating from the manufacture of nuclear weapons decades ago.
“We are following the data and taking the actions needed to advance remediation efforts along Coldwater Creek safely and effectively,” said Col.
Andy Pannier, the St.
Louis district commander, in a news release.
“We will continue to prioritize the health and well-being of the community, guided by data-driven decisions, and keep the community informed throughout the process.”
Taking the building down will allow workers to clean up radioactive material underground and further assess the contamination, officials said.
No one has lived at the apartment complex at 7381 Normandie Court for years, officials said, and the property is now fenced off.
According to county property records, the multibuilding garden apartment complex was built in 1970 and owned by an LLC with a mailing address in Brooklyn, New York.
In the past, the property was called French Quarter Apartments.
Army Corps of Engineers officials said the contaminated material is underground and people nearby are not at risk.
At this point, agency officials don’t think any other buildings need to be demolished.
“Cleanup began in the 1990s,” said Kim Visintine, one of the founders of the resident advocacy group Coldwater Creek-Just the Facts.
“That’s 40 years of flooding and rain going into the creek, so I would expect them to find additional sites.”
Studies have found people who lived near the creek were more likely to contract diseases associated with nuclear waste.
Harvard University researchers last year found those who lived nearby had increased instances of cancer.
The Army Corps of Engineers has been testing and cleaning up nuclear contamination on the Coldwater Creek banks for years, Visintine said.
She said she knows the cleanup is taking a long time but would rather the job be done slowly and carefully.
“It’s an environmental hazard.
Should everyone have concern?
Absolutely!
That’s why we advocated for so long,” Visintine said.
“[But] is the risk today what it was for kids riding their bikes in dirt piles of construction material as these new subdivisions were being built?
No.”
Earlier this year, the Corps announced it would demolish six houses near the creek in Florissant after workers found contaminated dirt under their foundations.
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100%flagged-word coverageKim Visintine
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