ST. LOUIS COUNTY, Mo–A U.S. Senate committee hearing this week shed a little more light on what’s been holding up a request by the Hazelwood School District to have more testing done to address concerns over the potential for radioactive material.

Students who would normally attend Jana Elementary School have been at other Hazelwood School District buildings since late November after private tests conducted at the building found concerns over potential radioactive material connected to the ongoing work to clean up Manhattan Project-era waste in the Coldwater Creek area.

Additional testing of the Jana Elementary site by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and a separate third party company paid for by the district found no such concerns. The school board voted in December to ask the U.S. Army Corps to fully test all district property, but Corps officials have said they lack the statutory authority and budget from Congress to do it.

The district has also approached the U.S. Department of Energy for potential help but again ran into a question of which agency has statutory authority.

Thursday, U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley R-Mo in his first hearing as a member of the Senate Energy Committee, pressed Deputy Energy Secretary David Turk on the matter, believing it was possible that both agencies share the authority.

Sen. Joe Manchin D-W. Va, chair of the committee said in the hearing it would require a legislative fix.

“We have to do it, he (Turk) can not do that, what you just asked him, and we can and we must and we should do it as quickly as possible.” 

“We’re more than happy to make this a top priority,” Turk told the panel. 

A spokesperson for the Hazelwood School District offered no reaction to the hearing when asked for comment Friday. As for any preparations for the next school year, she said families redistricted from Jana Elementary "will continue to receive information from their redistricted schools."