Background/ History
The University of Missouri-Columbia is a public university located off S. Providence Road in Columbia, which offers undergraduate and graduate degree programs and research opportunities. The university operated a Resource Recovery Center, located at 8 Research Park Development Building, to receive and store in containers, hazardous waste produced by research activities and maintenance programs at the university-owned facilities before it is shipped off-site for disposal. The center included a solid hazardous waste storage building, storage yard, liquid hazardous waste storage building, flammable storage building used to store flammable liquid hazardous waste and pesticides, and a storage building containing a solid waste incinerator, empty containers, treatment chemicals and supplies.
The university operated landfills, a coal pile runoff area, waste piles, aboveground and underground storage tanks, hazardous waste container storage areas, incinerators, wastewater treatment units, waste recycling operations, and waste treatment/detoxification areas under two hazardous waste permits, one issued by the department and one issued by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), both effective March 29, 1991. The department issued the Missouri Hazardous Waste Management Facility Part I Permit. EPA issued the Hazardous and Solid Waste Amendments Part II Permit.
Cleanup Summary
The university closed several of the areas by removing some storage tanks, closing some storage tanks in place, and decontaminating or disposing of equipment, storage cabinets, empty drums, pallets, ductwork and buildings. The department accepted the university’s closure certification for the hazardous waste management areas. The university is not subject to the permitting requirements of the Missouri Hazardous Waste Management Law or federal Hazardous and Solid Waste Amendments for post-closure care because they “clean closed” the hazardous waste management units.
The permits issued to the university also require them to investigate and clean up releases of hazardous waste and hazardous constituents to the environment at their facility resulting from present and past hazardous waste handling practices. The university conducted corrective action activities under the same two hazardous waste permits the facility operated under. Investigations identified one area, the garage (SWMU 40) as being contaminated with petroleum-related chemicals above risk-based levels in soil, indoor air and groundwater. The university filed Restrictive Covenants in the chain-of-title for the affected property, which will notify in perpetuity, any potential purchaser of the environmental conditions of the property. The covenants, which were filed with the Boone County Recorder of Deeds in June 22, 2006, and April 24, 2017, restrict the property to non-residential land use, require protective action if contamination is encountered in soil and prohibit the drilling or use of shallow groundwater. On May 17, 2017, following required public notice and opportunity for public comment, EPA, in coordination with the department, approved the proposed final remedy of no further corrective action with institutional controls and released the university from regulation as a hazardous waste treatment, storage and disposal facility subject to the corrective action requirements of the Missouri Hazardous Waste Management Law and regulations.
