United States Environmental Protection Agency
Region VII
POLLUTION REPORT

Subject: 

The Washington County Lead District – Old Mines Site is located in a heavily mined region of eastern Missouri known as the Washington County Lead District.  The Old Mines Site primarily includes residential areas within and around the communities of Old Mines, Kingston, Fertile, Tiff and other smaller communities.  It is only a portion of the larger Washington County Lead Mining District.

Mines in the Old Mines Area include the following:

Pfizer Kingston School
Mobar Star Mine
Milchem Whale-Scott Mine
AW Wood Mine
DeSoto Mining Company – Fertile Mine
Dresser Minerals Big River
Milchem Sun Mine
General Barite Blackwell
Dresser Minerals Mine #44
Dresser Minerals Racola
H&P Mining Company
General Barite Old Mines
Terrace Mines
Pfizer Arnault School
Dresser Minerals Breton Creek #3
Dresser Minerals Mine #11
NL Bariod Blackwell
Dresser Minerals Mine #6

In August 2005, EPA began an integrated assessment that included soil and groundwater sampling in the Old Mines area.  During this sampling event, EPA sampled the soil at 85 residences located on or near mining or mine-waste disposal areas.  Based on this data, approximately 47% of these residential properties had soils which exceeded 400 parts per million (ppm) and roughly 13% had soils which exceeded 1200 ppm for lead.  EPA also sampled approximately 77 private drinking water wells in the Old Mines area beginning in August 2005.  Of these 77 wells sampled, 7 exceeded 15 parts per billion (ppb) for lead, and one well exceeded 3030 ppb for barium, which exceeds the Maximum Contaminant Levels (MCLs) for lead and barium in drinking water.

Excavation of all properties for which funding is available have been completed, so far totaling 40 properties.  Seeding of backfilled areas has been completed.  Seed was placed on more than 670,000 square feet of soil.  Almost 35,000 cubic yards of contaminated soil was delivered to the repository, or 870 cubic yards per property.  Upon delivery of the soil to the repository, it is stockpiled, sampled, and analyzed for Toxicity Characteristic Leaching Procedure (TCLP).  If the stockpile fails TCLP it is treated and resampled until it passes.

Totals:

Properties screened:  864
Properties with lead > 1200 :48
Properties excavated:  40
Drinking water wells sampled:  787
Drinking water wells >MCL:  121
Residences provided with bottled water:  87

Continue sampling of residential properties and drinking water wells.  Continue providing bottled water to residents with contaminated wells.  Monitor progress of revegetation of excavated properties.

Obtain additional funding to complete excavations.