The Corps of Engineers opposed the transfer bill, saying it could further delay cleanup and shift more of a burden of paying for it to the taxpayer and away from the companies that produced the waste. The EPA also opposed it and said previously that it would have a plan on cleanup on the site before the end of the year. However, a spokesman for the agency’s regional office in Lenexa, Kan., would not confirm on Wednesday if that was still the agency’s goal.

“In terms of update on the schedule, we have not made any new announcements,” EPA spokesman Ben Washburn said.

But Chapman, the co-founder of Just Moms, said she was told Wednesday by EPA officials in Bridgeton that the agency would not meet the December deadline.

In July, Shimkus told the Post-Dispatch that he was worried that shifting the responsibility to the Corps, which activists believe has a better track record of cleaning sites such as West Lake, would put cleanup at the site “at the bottom of the list” of Corps projects.

Jordan Haverly, a spokesman for Shimkus, said this week that his boss was “reserving judgment” and was “not taking a position” on the transfer to the Corps “until it goes through regular [committee] order, where we’d hear from all stakeholders and vet the concerns raised by the Army Corps and EPA.”