Background/ History
The Beazer East Inc. site is located in the Blue Valley Industrial Corridor at 6740 Stadium Drive in Kansas City, Missouri. In the early 1920s, the National Lumber and Creosote Co. began operating a wood treating facility at the site, which originally covered about 20 to 25 acres. National Lumber used mainly creosote as a wood preservative to pressure treat railroad ties, posts and telephone poles. The Koppers Co. Inc. purchased the facility in 1937, and continued similar wood treating operations. In addition to creosote, Koppers reportedly used pentachlorophenol as a wood preservative in the late 1950s-early 1960s.
Sometime prior to 1980, Koppers built a hazardous waste container storage area to temporarily store 55-gallon drums of creosote and the bottom sediment sludges from the treatment of wastewater processes that use creosote and pentachlorophenol, which are both listed hazardous wastes. Koppers operated the hazardous waste container storage area under the “interim status” portions of the federal Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA).
Cleanup Summary
Koppers stopped operating the facility in late 1987-early 1988 and partially demolished the plant operations. Beazer Materials and Services Inc., who changed their name to Beazer East Inc. in April 1990, purchased the facility in late 1988. From 1990 to 1992, Beazer continued dismantling all on-site structures. In 1992, Beazer closed the hazardous waste container storage area as a land disposal unit, with waste in place, according to the department-approved closure plan. A Deed Notice, signed by the Jackson County Recorder of Deeds in 1993, was placed on the hazardous waste container storage area in order to inform potential future buyers of the property that this site contains hazardous waste. The department accepted Beazer’s closure certification for the container storage area; however, Beazer is subject to the permitting requirements of the Missouri Hazardous Waste Management Law and federal Hazardous and Solid Waste Amendments for post-closure care because hazardous waste remained in place after closure.
Beazer is also subject to corrective action because they completed closure after the effective date of the federal Hazardous and Solid Waste Amendments. Beazer is conducting post-closure and corrective action activities under two hazardous waste permits, one issued by the department and one issued by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), originally issued in 1997. The department reissued the Missouri Hazardous Waste Management Facility Part I Permit, effective Sept. 30, 2011. EPA reissued the Hazardous and Solid Waste Amendments Part II Permit, effective Nov. 2, 2011. Beginning in 1996, Beazer has recovered free product from several groundwater monitoring wells on site, removed contaminated soil and sediment, and reconstructed impacted surface water drainage ditches. Uncontaminated soil was used to stabilize surface soil, address surface water drainage problems, and cap contaminated soil, minimizing the potential for direct contact. In 2005, following required public notice and opportunity for comment, the department, in coordination with EPA, approved the proposed final remedy for the site, which included continued monitoring and maintenance of the closed hazardous waste container storage area and cap, continued free product (creosote) recovery, surface and groundwater monitoring, and implementation of a Deed Notice. Parts of the originally permitted property that required “No Further Corrective Action” were also removed from the permit. These areas are now considered to be “off-site of the permitted property” which is about 7.9 acres. The facility property is now largely covered with gravel and native vegetation and is inactive except for on-going post-closure and corrective action activities. Beazer and the department are currently drafting the Deed Notice.
