Background/ History
The EaglePicher Technologies site is located on about 57 acres at “C” and Porter streets in Joplin. Industrial operations at the site date back to the mid-19th century when Eagle White Lead Works began operating a lead processing and smelting facility at the site. In 1916, the company merged with a lead mining company, Picher Lead Co., and formed Eagle-Picher Lead, a corporation that mainly produced zinc based products. Over the years EaglePicher (known as, among others, EaglePicher Co., EaglePicher Mining and Smelting, EaglePicher Industries Inc. and New EaglePicher Technologies) continued to grow, diversify and purchase other manufacturing companies to add to their corporation. EaglePicher filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy relief in January 1991 and April 2005. Under its 2006 reorganization plan, substantially all of EaglePicher Inc.’s assets and its U.S. subsidiaries were transferred to the newly formed EaglePicher Corp. Currently EaglePicher Technologies LLC is a wholly owned subsidiary of OM Group Inc. EaglePicher designs and manufactures batteries, battery management systems and energetic devices for the defense, aerospace and medical industries.
Under the federal Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), the facility is considered a closed hazardous waste storage and disposal facility. A variety of hazardous wastes were produced as part of the manufacturing operations at the facility. EaglePicher stored the hazardous waste in drums, in five hazardous waste container storage areas, until enough waste was collected to ship off site for disposal. EaglePicher also operated two hazardous waste surface impoundments to manage wastewater. EaglePicher operated the hazardous waste container storage areas under the “interim status” portions of RCRA and the hazardous waste container storage areas under two hazardous waste permits. The department issued a Missouri Hazardous Waste Management Facility Part I Permit. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a Hazardous a Solid Waste Amendments Part II Permit.
Cleanup Summary
EaglePicher closed both surface impoundments in 1989, according to department-approved closure plans. The facility is subject to the permitting requirements of the Missouri Hazardous Waste Management Law and federal Hazardous and Solid Waste Amendments to RCRA for long-term monitoring and maintenance activities (post-closure care) because hazardous waste remained in place after closure. EaglePicher “clean closed” the five hazardous waste container storage areas in 2008. The facility is subject to corrective action requirements because EaglePicher completed the closure activities after the effective date of the federal Hazardous and Solid Waste Amendments. EaglePicher is performing post-closure and corrective action activities at the site under a department-issued Part I Permit, effective Sept. 30, 2020. The Part I Permit was originally issued with a Part II Permit in 1993, and reissued in 2010 and 2020. EPA decided not to reissue the Part II Permit in 2020, since EPA had no site-specific conditions for the facility, beyond those contained in the Part I Permit, and Missouri is fully authorized for all permitting, post-closure, corrective action and RAP activities at the facility.
According to applicable federal and state hazardous waste laws and regulations, all hazardous waste treatment, storage and disposal facilities are required to investigate and clean up releases of hazardous waste to the environment at their facility resulting from present and past hazardous waste handling practices. Investigations dating back to 1987, found evidence of widespread contamination in soil, surface water and groundwater, mostly due to heavy metals, but also from isolated areas of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. In 2010, waste management and corrective action efforts resulted in reducing post-closure activities to one closed surface impoundment and continuing the corrective action investigation and remediation activities already in progress. EaglePicher’s currently effective hazardous waste permit requires EaglePicher to continue performing long-term monitoring and maintenance of closed surface impoundment and monitoring for heavy metal groundwater contamination. EaglePicher submitted a RCRA Facility Investigation report in 2009, and amendments in 2012, which the department approved in 2020. The contamination is limited to the facility property; however, no additional cleanup activities are necessary at this time. As a precaution, the department and EaglePicher executed an Environmental Covenant for the facility property to establish certain activity and use limitations. The covenant was filed with the Jasper County Recorder of Deeds on Nov. 13, 2020. The covenants restricts the facility property to non-residential use and prohibits disturbing the soil and drilling or using shallow groundwater for drinking water.
