Background/ History
The Dyno Nobel Carthage Plant is located on about 1,500 acres at 17562 Gum Road, about 4 miles west of Carthage. The Carthage Plant has historically manufactured nitroglycerin and nitrate esters based dynamites. In 1898, Independent Powder Co. built the plant to serve the tri-state lead and mining industry. Hercules Powder Co. purchased the plant in 1914. In May 1985, IRECO Inc. purchased the plant and changed its name to Dyno Nobel Inc. in 1993.
Dyno, owned by Incitec Pivot Ltd., manufactures packaged emulsion explosives and cast booster high explosives on a production scale. Other related products manufactured at the plant include mixed acids, denitrated sulfuric acid and ammonium nitrate. The facility is also a distribution point for blasting agents, caps and initiators. Dyno operated two hazardous waste management units, an east and west burning pad, where open burning/open detonation of certain hazardous wastes occurred, and a hazardous waste storage magazine, under the “interim status” portions of the federal Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA). Dyno also recovered spent nitric acid and similar acid waste from other explosives companies under an R2 Resource Recovery Certification, issued by the department.
Cleanup Summary
According to applicable state and federal hazardous waste laws and regulations, all hazardous waste treatment, storage and disposal facilities are required 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. Initial investigations in 1991 found evidence of contamination and identified several areas that required further investigation. In 2001, Dyno and the department began working to develop a site investigation and remediation approach using a Letter of Agreement, in an effort to simplify and streamline the corrective action process. Presently, this effort has not yet been completed.
In 1995, Dyno closed a Thermal Treatment Unit, known as a ‘shooting pond’. Closure was completed with lead contamination remaining, although not high enough to restrict potential future use. A Deed Notice, signed by the Jasper County Recorder of Deeds, was placed on the property in order to inform potential future buyers of the property. Dyno began closing the east and west burning pads and storage magazine in 2003. Closure investigations indicated soil was contaminated with arsenic and lead at the east burning pad above health-based levels. No impacts to groundwater from the burning pads were found. Other contamination has required investigation of potential impacts to groundwater due to perchlorate and explosive compounds. An emergency permit was issued in April 2004 for the cleanout of mixed acid tanks. Another emergency permit was issued in March 2012 for the burning of two former production buildings once used for explosive manufacturing. The department accepted Dyno Nobel’s closure certification for the two buildings on May 28, 2013. A third emergency permit was issued in Nov. 2015, for the burning of sodium nitrite-contaminated dynamite. As of 2016, closure activities are still in progress.
