Image: A view of the landfill burning in February 2014 / Kqueirolomce

For six years, an underground garbage fire has been steadily burning outside of Saint Louis, Missouri, right next to a landfill filled with nuclear waste buried in the mid-70s. So why hasn’t anyone managed to extinguish it yet?

The AP reports that the EPA handed down a series of measures designed to stem the fire, including temperature monitors, cooling loops, and a giant smothering tarp. Those new measures aren’t being instituted because the fire has spread closer to the nearby waste site, officials said. Rather, the measures are merely to make sure it doesn’t.

But what’s going on with this fire, and why isn’t it just being put out? The problem is that no one seems to have a plan for how to extinguish it. In fact, nobody even knows what’s causing the fire.

The state of Missouri sued the burning landfill owners, Republic Services, three years ago, but the case is stuck in court. Even the EPA’s newest measures still wouldn’t actually put out the fire. They would merely keep it from spreading. What happens if the fire does spread, despite the efforts?


