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 (MDNR) has developed a database of known mining occurrences in the state of Missouri called Incidents of Mines, Occurrences, and Prospects (IMOP). 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% of United States Barite production.
In June 2008, the 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 w/ Soil Levels greater than 400 ppm 145
Properties w/ Soil Levels greater than 1,200 ppm 33
The START contractor continues to sample residential properties and child high-use areas at the site. The following is a summary of the results of sampling to date:
Clean Properties: 597
Non-Time Critical Properties: 205
Time Critical Properties: 106
To date, the ERRS contractor has completed excavation and backfilling of 38 properties.
The ERRS contractor will continue excavation of time-critical properties.
Sampling and cleanup efforts will continue.
A former zinc mine and smelter is currently being used as a soil staging area and was deemed not suitable for an on-site soil repository.
Local newspapers and activists are reporting that soil from the Furnace Creek site is being hauled to the Leadwood Mine and dumped. To the best of EPA's knowledge, this is not a true statement.
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