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Superfund Program Implements the Recovery Act
Madison County Mines/Residential Properties
Fredericktown, MissouriSite Description
The approximate 498-square-mile site is located in Madison County, MO, a rural agricultural area 80 miles southeast of St. Louis. The site is at the southern end of the Old Lead Belt, where heavy metal mining has occurred since the early 1700s. Contaminated media at the site include soil, sediments, shallow ground water, and surface water; contaminants of concern (COC) are heavy metals, with lead the contaminant driving the long-term cleanup to address the residential properties portion of the overall site. Young children exposed to lead-contaminated soil at residential properties represent the greatest risk to human health.
Cleanup Activities to Date
EPA added the site to the National Priorities List in 2003. EPA’s general long-term cleanup approach has been to prioritize cleanup of the site’s greatest human health and ecological risks by subsite. EPA issued a cleanup decision document for the residential properties subsite in 2008 that calls for excavation, removal, and disposal of lead-contaminated residential soil, as well as health education activities and an institutional controls pilot project. The long-term cleanup action to address approximately 1,100 residential properties began in late 2008 and will continue for an estimated four years. To date, lead-contaminated soil at more than 800 residential properties has been removed and replaced throughout the county.
Recovery Act Project Activity
EPA will use the $10-25 million in Recovery Act funds allocated to this site to support ongoing excavation, replacement, and disposal of approximately 205,000 cubic yards of lead-contaminated residential soil at approximately 800 residential properties. Consistent with EPA’s overall site cleanup approach, this activity will address the highest priority and greatest risk to human health at the site—exposure of young children to lead-contaminated residential soil. EPA anticipates that the Recovery Act funding will allow for the projected four-to-five-year cleanup to be completed on an expedited schedule.
To find out more about:
- This Superfund site, go to: http://www.epa.gov/region07/cleanup/npl_files/mod098633415.pdf;
- The Recovery Act and:
- Superfund, go to: http://www.epa.gov/superfund/eparecovery/index.html;
- EPA, go to: http://www.epa.gov/recovery; and
- The United States, go to: http://www.recovery.gov.