The U.S. Technology Corporation, or UST, provided bead blast media to customers to strip paint from aircraft, vehicles and equipment. Such use resulted in toxic levels of metals (e.g., cadmium and chromium) to accumulate in the spent blast media. The primary contaminants of concern at the Site are RCRA regulated metals which are present in waste spent blasting media, or SBM, located at the Site. UST shipped approximately 7,000 tons of SBM to the Site. Missouri Green Materials, LLC, or MGM, operated at the Site and accepted the waste. The SBM, contaminated with cadmium, chromium and lead, is currently stored in super sacks and drums within a former manufacturing building at the Site.
In June 2014, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Criminal Investigation Division, or CID, conducted sampling of the SBM at the MGM facility. Fifty-five samples were collected from various storage sacks and drums within the building.
The results of this sampling confirmed that UST was storing hazardous waste at the MGM facility, as 77% of the samples analyzed failed the Toxicity Characteristic Leaching Test, or TCLP, for cadmium and/or chromium.
On April 26, 2018, due to deteriorating conditions of the building and the deteriorating condition of bags containing the waste, the EPA RCRA program referred the Site to the Superfund program to conduct a removal site evaluation to determine if a removal action would be appropriate.
On May 7 and 8, 2018, EPA on-scene coordinators conducted removal assessment activities at the Site. Initial observations from inside the building indicated that several of the bags of SBM had been cut open, spilling some of the contents onto the floor. It was observed that other bags had been knocked over from the locations (where they had been stacked. A number of 55-gallon drums had also been overturned, spilling their contents onto the floor. It was observed that the number of compromised containers was noticeably more then was observed during the 2014 CID investigation. It was also observed that several of the doors and loading bays had been damaged and/or breached by trespassers, to gain access into the building (apparently for the purpose of stealing copper wire and other materials from the building).
A Removal Action Memorandum was signed on September 11, 2018. It is anticipated that a Removal Action will begin in February of 2019.
