{"id":22722,"date":"2025-07-14T14:15:59","date_gmt":"2025-07-14T19:15:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/granitecitygossip.com\/?page_id=22722"},"modified":"2025-07-24T12:56:59","modified_gmt":"2025-07-24T17:56:59","slug":"metro-east-communities-coldwater-creek","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/granitecitygossip.com\/index.php\/metro-east-communities-coldwater-creek\/","title":{"rendered":"Metro East Communities Coldwater Creek"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"fonts-plugin-block \" style=\"font-family: Lato;font-weight: normal;font-size: 20px;line-height: 1.4;text-align: center\"><strong>Metro East Communities, Including Granite City, Again Excluded from <\/strong><br><strong>Federal Radiation Compensation Program<\/strong><\/p>\n\n<p class=\"fonts-plugin-block \" style=\"font-family: Lato;font-weight: normal;font-size: 14px\"><em>GraniteCityGossip.com, July 14, 2025<\/em><\/p>\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" src=\"https:\/\/granitecitygossip.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/coldwater-creek-1graphic.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-22725\" srcset=\"https:\/\/granitecitygossip.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/coldwater-creek-1graphic.jpg 640w, https:\/\/granitecitygossip.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/coldwater-creek-1graphic-300x225.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 85vw, 640px\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n<p class=\"fonts-plugin-block \" style=\"font-family: Lato;font-weight: normal\">Residents of Granite City, Madison, and Venice were left out once again in the latest expansion of a federal compensation fund aimed at helping people suffering from radiation-related illnesses tied to the Manhattan Project era.<br><br>Congress recently passed legislation expanding the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA) to include 21 ZIP codes in Missouri, including areas surrounding Coldwater Creek and former nuclear waste sites. However, neighboring Metro East communities in Illinois, specifically ZIP codes 62040 (Granite City) and 62060 (Venice and Madison), were not included\u2014despite decades of proximity to radioactive materials, cancer clusters, and contamination dating back to the mid-20th century.<br><br>Illinois lawmakers and advocates have been fighting for recognition for years. Representative Nikki Budzinski (D-Springfield) voiced frustration, saying, \u201cI think there are others that were left behind.\u201d Local activists like former uranium worker Larry Burgan echoed the concern: \u201cThis small group of people here in Venice and Madison in Illinois have been left out once again.\u201d<br><br>Though cleanup at key sites wasn\u2019t completed until 2007, hundreds of residents continue reporting long-term health effects. Advocates argue the exclusion ignores a documented environmental hazard and undermines fair access to federal aid.<br><br>Budzinski is currently working with bipartisan colleagues to identify new legislative pathways to bring inclusion to Metro East communities in future compensation efforts.<\/p>\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-22722","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/granitecitygossip.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/22722","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/granitecitygossip.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/granitecitygossip.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/granitecitygossip.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/granitecitygossip.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22722"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/granitecitygossip.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/22722\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22945,"href":"https:\/\/granitecitygossip.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/22722\/revisions\/22945"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/granitecitygossip.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22722"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}