A U.S. Army Corps of Engineers official says giving the agency authority over a contaminated St. Louis-area landfill will not speed up removal of radioactive contamination.

Federal legislation sponsored by St. Louis-area members of Missouri congressional delegation seeks to move the West Lake Landfill into a Corps program created to handle radioactively contaminated sites.

Currently, the Environmental Protection Agency oversees the landfill.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports activists, residents near the landfill and politicians say the EPA has done nothing to clean the landfill, despite having jurisdiction for more than 25 years. The EPA says the radioactive waste is contained and is no threat to residents.

Steve Stockton, the Corps' director of civil works, says adding the landfill to the Corps' program would not accelerate at the landfill.

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