JEFFERSON CITY, MO, DEC. 6, 2021 - The Missouri Department of Natural Resources issued a final hazardous waste permit and approved the proposed final remedy for the Bayer CropScience LP facility, allowing the company to continue operating its Kansas City chemical manufacturing facility.
Bayer CropScience LP operates a chemical pesticide manufacturing and formulating facility at the site, located at 8400 Hawthorne Road in Kansas City, Missouri. The wastes managed at the facility include characteristically hazardousmaterials, as well as wastes that carry F, K, P, and U codes. The facility currently operates two hazardous waste container storage areas with a combined capacity of 27,200 gallons, one thermal oxidizer hazardous waste incinerator and five large permitted hazardous waste tanks.
Bayer CropScience LP has been operating, performing long-term monitoring and maintenance activities, and conducting corrective-action investigations and remediation activities at the site under a department-issued Missouri Hazardous Waste Management Facility Part I Permit and a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency-issued Hazardous and Solid Waste Amendments Part II Permit. Bayer CropScience LP submitted a permit application to the department and EPA in September 2008, and a revised application Jan. 31, 2020, to renew and update its existing hazardous waste permits. On Sept. 24, 2020, Bayer CropScience LP also submitted a final corrective-measures study report, which identified and evaluated possible corrective-measure alternatives, including the company's preferred final remedy.
After a thorough technical review of the permit application, Bayer CropScience LP’s preferred final remedy and other remedial alternatives, and after providing an opportunity for public comment, the department approved the proposed final remedy and issued a final Part I Permit with a schedule of compliance. The final permit allows the company to operate the hazardous waste management facility to store, treat and incinerate hazardous waste. This permit requires corrective action for soil and groundwater, including groundwater monitoring, to make certain the contaminant plume is not posing a threat to human health or the environment. The Part I Permit outlines the approved final remedy, which includes property activity and use limitations, which were established through an enforceable environmental covenant. The final permit also shifts oversight responsibility for the corrective-action activities from EPA to the department.
EPA decided not to issue a Part II Permit, since EPA has no site-specific conditions for the facility and Missouri is fully authorized for all permitting and corrective-action activities at the facility. EPA will terminate the existing Part II Permit upon issuance of the Part I Permit.
During the public comment period, the department received comments on the draft Part I Permit and the environmental covenant, which is part of the proposed final remedy. Any parties adversely affected or aggrieved by the department’s decision to approve the proposed final remedy and issue the final Part I Permit or specific conditions of the final Part I Permit, may be entitled to pursue an appeal before the Administrative Hearing Commission by filing a written petition by Jan. 3, 2022. The appeals process is more fully described in the final Part I Permit.
The final Part I Permit and additional information are available online at dnr.mo.gov/waste-recycling/what-were-doing/public-involvement/notices-comments or at the Kansas City Public Library’s Sugar Creek Branch, 102 S. Sterling, Sugar Creek. For more information about the final Part I Permit, or to obtain a written copy of the final Part I Permit for review, please contact Bryce Bobbitt by writing the Missouri Department of Natural Resources, Waste Management Program, P.O. Box 176, Jefferson City, MO 65102-0176, by telephone at 573-751-3068, or by email at bryce.bobbitt@dnr.mo.gov. Hearing- and speech-impaired individuals may reach Bobbitt through Relay Missouri at 800-735-2966.