JEFFERSON CITY, MO, SEPT. 2, 2020 – The Missouri Department of Natural Resources issued a final hazardous waste permit for the Expert Management Inc. facility, allowing the company to continue corrective-action and post-closure care activities at its Carthage facility.
Expert Management Inc. operated a chemical and explosives manufacturing facility at the site, located at 3078 Co. Road 180 in Carthage. The facility manufactured industrial-grade ammonium nitrate, weak nitric acid, ammonium nitrate-based emulsion explosives, commercial dynamite, TNT, blasting agents and other chemicals used in the explosives industry. Operations at the facility concluded in 2002. EMI has discontinued and decommissioned most of the buildings at the facility, with the exception of main office and maintenance buildings necessary to facilitate post-closure care and corrective-action activities.
Expert Management Inc. has been 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 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency-issued Hazardous and Solid Waste Amendments Part II Permit. The company submitted a permit application to the department and EPA on Nov. 26, 2014 (with revisions dated Aug. 20, 2019), to renew and update their existing hazardous waste permits. Expert Management Inc. also submitted a Remedial Action Plan application to the department and EPA on Feb. 11, 2016 (with revisions dated Sept. 30, 2019), requesting to include provisions in the renewal permit.
The department previously approved Temporary Authorization requests for Expert Management Inc. to compost impacted soil. After the department conducted a thorough technical review of both the permit application and the company’s preferred final remedy, and provided opportunity for public comment, the department approved the proposed final remedy and issued a final Part I Permit that includes a schedule of compliance. The final permit requires Expert Management Inc. to perform corrective-action activities according to the approved final remedy. The Part I Permit outlines the approved final remedy and includes limitations on property activity and use established through an enforceable Environmental Covenant. The Part I Permit includes Remedial Action Plan provisions for handling composted soils as proposed in the plan application.
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, post-closure, Remedial Action Plan and corrective-action activities at the facility. EPA will terminate the existing Part II Permit upon the issuance of the Part I Permit.
Any parties adversely affected or aggrieved by department’s decision to approve the proposed final remedy and issue the final Part I Permit or by specific conditions of the final Part I Permit, may be entitled to pursue an appeal before the Administrative Hearing Commission. To submit an appeal, a written petition must be filed by Sept. 30, 2020, a process more fully described in the final Part I Permit.
The final Part I Permit and additional information are available online https://dnr.mo.gov/waste-recycling/sites-regulated-facilities/hazardous-waste-treatment-storage-disposal-tsd/mod077887909 or at the Joplin Public Library, 1901 E. 20th St. in Joplin. 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, Missouri Department of Natural Resources, Waste Management Program, P.O. Box 176, Jefferson City, MO 65102-0176, by telephone at 573-751-3068 or 800-361-4827, or by email at bryce.bobbitt@dnr.mo.gov. Hearing- and speech-impaired individuals may reach Bobbitt through Relay Missouri at 800-735-2966.