Background/ History
Eaton Hydraulics Inc. is located on the site of the former Sperry-Vickers facility, at 2800 W. 10th St. in Joplin. From 1952 to 1987, the 50-acre facility was a manufacturing plant that produced piston and gear hydraulic pumps, motors, hydrostatic transmissions, and power steering boosters for industrial and agricultural uses. Sperry-Vickers was a division of Sperry Corp., the predecessor to Unisys Corp. In January 1984, the facility was owned and operated by Vickers Inc., the predecessor to Eaton Hydraulics. All manufacturing at the facility ended in December 1987. Able Body Corp., now known as Able Manufacturing LLC, purchased the manufacturing building and associated area in 1988. Able Body manufactures fiberglass components for semi-tractor trailer cabs in the old Vickers manufacturing building and a new building built south of the Vickers building.
A variety of hazardous wastes were produced as part of the facility operations, including spent solvents, waste oils, paint residues, metal plating wastes, corrosives, scrap metals, cyanides, and spent kolene salts. Vickers and its predecessors also operated two surface impoundments, a hazardous waste storage building and a sludge drying basin under the “interim status” portions of the federal Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA).
Cleanup Summary
All the hazardous waste stored in the hazardous waste storage building was removed during the facility decommissioning in late 1987 and early 1988. Vickers closed the remaining regulated hazardous waste management units in 1988. The hazardous waste storage building and sludge drying basin were clean closed. The two surface impoundments were closed as a landfill, with waste in place. Vickers 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.
Vickers is also subject to corrective action because they completed closure of the interim status hazardous waste management units after the effective date of the federal Hazardous and Solid Waste Amendments. In September 1987, Vickers entered into a 3008(h) Corrective Action Administrative Order on Consent with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), requiring Vickers to take corrective action. Investigations confirmed the soil and groundwater beneath the site and the groundwater off site to the north and northeast of the facility were contaminated with volatile organic compounds, semi-volatile organic compounds, metals, light non-aqueous phase liquids and dense non-aqueous phase liquids. On April 26, 1999, the department issued a Missouri Hazardous Waste Management Facility Part I permit to Eaton Hydraulics, as the current owner, and Unisys Corp., as the current operator. The permit requires Eaton and Unisys to conduct post-closure care of the former surface impoundments and corrective action at the facility. Because the permit was under appeal until it was dismissed in June 2007, the Corrective action order wasn’t terminated by EPA until January 9, 2009.
Eaton and Unisys are currently performing a Corrective Measures Study to identify and evaluate possible remedial alternatives for the soil and groundwater contamination located on the entire former Vickers facility, including the property owned by Able Body. When the study is complete, the department and EPA will review the possible remedial measures and select the best remedy given site-specific considerations. Current activities at the facility include operation and maintenance of the groundwater monitoring system and operation of a collection and treatment system for dissolved-phase volatile organic compounds and light non-aqueous phase liquids in groundwater.
