Background/ History
The Doe Run Co.-Buick Resource Recovery Facility is located at 18594 Highway KK in Boss. The operations portion of the facility currently occupies about 250 acres. From 1968 until the construction of the Buick Resource Recycling Division in 1987, Buick operated a primary lead smelter at the site. From 1987 to 1991, the primary smelter was only operated intermittently, mainly to supply sinter to Doe Run's primary smelter in Herculaneum, Missouri. Most of the equipment is still in place and operational. Currently Buick operates a secondary lead smelting plant. Buick recycles lead-acid batteries and other lead-bearing hazardous and non-hazardous wastes to recover the lead, trace metals, sulfuric acid, and polyethylene plastic. The sulfuric acid is recycled and plastics are collected for shipment off-site for recycling. The recoverable lead-bearing material is then smelted in one of three furnaces and resold as secondary lead. Because lead ore and other lead-bearing materials are often not pure lead, fluxing agents, such as limestone, are used in the smelting process to react with the impurities and carry them off as slag. Buick currently recycles approximately 50 percent of the smelter slag produced back into the secondary process. Buick treats the remaining slag on-site, changing it to non-hazardous waste, and then disposes of the slag on-site in a hazardous waste landfill.
Used or “spent” lead-acid batteries are considered a hazardous waste under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) because they exhibit toxic characteristics from lead and corrosivity characteristics from the sulfuric acid electrolyte in the battery. The first phase of lead-acid battery recycling, the storage and disassembly of the lead-acid batteries, is regulated under the Missouri Hazardous Waste Management Law. Buick is currently operating under two hazardous waste permits, one issued by the Missouri Department of Natural Resources and one issued by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), both effective March 15, 2005. The department issued the Missouri Hazardous Waste Management Facility Part I Permit. EPA issued the Hazardous and Solid Waste Amendments Part II Permit. Under the permits, Buick is allowed to store hazardous wastes in containers and containment buildings, treat hazardous waste in miscellaneous units and dispose of treated hazardous waste in an on-site landfill. The actual recycling of the sulfuric acid and lead-bearing components of the lead-acid battery is regulated under Missouri’s Resource Recovery rule. Buick is reclaiming lead and sulfuric acid under a Resource Recovery Certification, issued by the department.
Cleanup Summary
The Missouri Hazardous Waste Management Law requires permitted hazardous waste facilities that currently or formerly treated, stored or disposed of hazardous waste in land-based units, such as landfills, to carry out a groundwater monitoring program to detect and measure any releases to the environment from the land-based units. Buick currently has two groundwater monitoring programs, one designed to monitor the landfill and one for the remainder of the site. A soil and excavation plan is also in place to analyze excavated soil and remediate if necessary. An Agreement for Easement Notice and Covenant Running with Land, signed by the department and Buick in 2008, serves as notice that the site has been permitted as a hazardous waste disposal area.
The permits issued to Buick 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. Buick is conducting corrective action activities under the same two hazardous waste permits the facility is operating under. Investigations identified several areas at the site as having the potential for impacting sediment, soil, surface water, groundwater or air. The department has requested Buick to conduct a RCRA Facility Investigation to define the horizontal and vertical extent of any contamination. What, if any, cleanup activities necessary will be based on the investigation results.
