The site is located in a heavily mined region of eastern Missouri known as the Washington County Lead District. The site includes residential areas within and around the towns of Caledonia, Irondale, Belgrade, and Hopewell, and is only a portion of the larger Washington County Lead Mining District.
Lead mining in southeast Missouri began around 1720, and is still mined in the Viburnum Trend, which includes part of Washington County (Doe Run’s Viburnum Mine 29). The Missouri Department of Natural Resources has developed a database of known mining occurrences in the state of Missouri called Incidents of Mines, Occurrences, and Prospects. Currently there are over 1,000 entries in the database for Washington County.
Toward the end of the American Civil War, lead deposits in Washington County ran low and the industry declined. It was soon replaced by the surface mining of barite (barium sulfate), which was used in rubber, paint, soap, drilling fluids, and medical products. Many lead mines were over-mined for the barite, which was also associated with galena (lead sulfide). The barite was separated from the clay initially by hand washing and then by mechanical barite washing plants that were introduced into the area in the 1920s. In 1941, Missouri accounted for 40 percent of the United States barite production.
In June 2008, EPA began a removal assessment that included soil and groundwater sampling in the Furnace Creek area. During this sampling event, EPA contractors screened the soil at 428 residences and sampled 207 private drinking water wells. The results of this sampling effort revealed the following information.
Properties with soil levels greater than 400 ppm 145
Properties with soil levels greater than 1,200 ppm 33
The Superfund Technical Assessment and Response Team (START) contractor has ceased sampling residential properties and child high-use areas at the site druing this reporting period. The following is a summary of the results of sampling to date.
Clean Properties: 1027
Non-Time Critical Properties: 284
Time-Critical Properties: 163
Drinking Water Wells Sampled 1115
Wells exceeding 15 ppb lead 16
The ERRS Contractor demobilized from the site on April 12, 2010. To date, the Emergency and Rapid Response Services (ERRS) contractor has completed excavation and backfilling of 159 properties. The ERRS contractor is also continuing to provide alternative drinking water to 4 property owners whose wells are contaminated with lead.
EPA conducted inspections of all the completed removal action properties. During the inspections, EPA identified eight properties needing minor repairs. The ERRS contractor will mobilize a crew to the site to complete the repairs.
The ERRS contractor will conduct minor repairs on eight properties. Weather permitting, repair activities are expected to take only a couple of days to complete.
Time critical soil and gravel removals are tentatively complete.
None.
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