FLORISSANT — The owners of six homes in the Cades Cove subdivision are likely to be offered buyouts due to radioactive contamination below their backyards, a federal official said Thursday.

“All signs point to us having to go through the permanent relocation process in order to safely remove the contamination in the backyard” of each, Phil Moser, an Army Corps of Engineers program manager, said in a telephone interview.

Moser said removing the homes probably would be necessary because the affected soil is close to their foundations. Moser said the contaminated soil is anywhere from 2.5 to 15 feet underground.

He said the homeowners are in the process of gathering necessary paperwork and that the federal government has yet to make specific offers of compensation. He said the process could continue for a few months.

Moser said the contamination doesn’t present a threat to public health “in its current configuration.” However, he said, “there’s always the possibility that many, many years down the road someone could dig down and access it and be exposed to it.”

Moser said five of the six homes are currently occupied and that at least 10 residents could be affected.

Houses in the neighborhood were built on top of an old meander of Coldwater Creek, a waterway that historically dispersed radioactive contaminants that were improperly stored or disposed of upstream. The waste was linked to the nation’s early development of nuclear weapons.

Gina McNabb, one of the homeowners, said she was “devastated” to learn she and her husband, Brian, could be required to move out of the home they’ve lived in for 27 years.

She also said that “nobody wants to live with the contamination. To know we’ve been living with such contamination is infuriating.”

She said they have been told by the Corps that the decision to offer buyouts and to demolish the six homes is definite. “The problem is we don’t have a time frame, we don’t have figures” yet, she said.

She said that they expect to be provided potential compensation amounts by the end of July.

She said in addition to paying for the value of the home, she said, she has been told that the Corps would cover moving costs. But she said there would be no additional compensation for the years of living with the contaminated soil.

Initially, she said, the Corps told them that the soil behind her home could be mitigated and they could return to live in their homes afterward. Also previously, she said, “we were given the option to come back and rebuild, and that’s been taken from us.”

Now, she said, they’ve been told they will have to relocate. All homes slated for likely buyouts are on Cades Cove, the subdivision’s main street.

McNabb said she also is worried about other neighbors who aren’t scheduled for buyouts. “I’m just concerned that more homes are affected than they have found thus far,” she said. “I’m hoping they’ll continue to look.”

Last year the Corps bored holes through the floors and basements of a few homes in the subdivision to test levels of radioactivity in the soil underneath.

The Corps said then that the levels of radioactivity detected below the homes had fallen short of the agency’s threshold for action but that the agency did plan to excavate soil from at least five yards in the neighborhood.

Moser, who manages the Corps program cleaning up Coldwater Creek and other areas impacted by uranium enrichment, discussed the situation following Florissant Mayor Timothy Lowery’s statement on Wednesday that the city had been made aware of a “potential” planned buyout of six homes.

Lowery said the city is actively seeking more information about the scope and the timeline for the potential buyout and will work closely with involved agencies to ensure that impacted families will have the resources, information and support they need.

Lowery said the city and its residents for decades had received “inconsistent and at times conflicting information” on contamination, flood mitigation plans and possible buyouts.

“This prolonged lack of clarity has contributed to confusion, frustration and a sense of mistrust among those impacted,” the mayor said.

“Promises of transparency, timely updates and genuine engagement have not always been upheld, and our community deserves better moving forward.”