Background/ History
The Alcolac Inc. site is located on about 56 acres at 24732 Randall Road in Sedalia. In 1977, Alcolac began operating a specialty chemicals manufacturing facility at the site, which originally covered about 228 acres. Alcolac produced a broad range of products with a variety of end-use applications in approximately 20 different industries, such as cosmetics, cleaning products, adhesives and textiles. Alcolac was acquired by RTZ Corp. in the 1980s and later purchased by Rhone-Poulenc SA in 1989. In 1999, Rhone-Poulenc spun Rhodia Inc. off as a new company. Alcolac is a wholly owned subsidiary of Rhodia Inc.
The Alcolac facility is a closed hazardous waste storage facility. The facility consisted of a Surfactant Plant, Monomer Plant, two incinerators, a lake, two cooling water ponds, four bio-oxidation ponds, three spray irrigation areas, two sedimentation ponds, a day pond and three salt ponds. A variety of hazardous wastes were produced as part of the facility operations. These wastes included D001 (ignitable), D002 (corrosive) and D008 (lead) listed hazardous wastes. Alcolac stored the hazardous wastes in tanks and containers until it was sent to the facility’s on-site wastewater treatment plant for treatment or enough waste was collected to ship off site for disposal. The hazardous waste storage tanks and container storage area were the only regulated hazardous waste management units at the facility. Alcolac operated the facility under the “interim status” portions of the federal Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA).
Cleanup Summary
Production operations at the facility stopped in 1991, and the equipment was dismantled in 1992. All ponds were closed between 1983 and 2003. The facility was not subject to the permitting requirements of the Missouri Hazardous Waste Management Law or federal Hazardous and Solid Waste Amendments to RCRA for long-term monitoring and maintenance activities (post-closure care) because Alcolac “clean closed” the interim status hazardous waste management units. The facility was subject to the corrective action requirements because Alcolac completed the closure activities after the effective date of the federal Hazardous and Solid Waste Amendments.
Investigation results showed soil and groundwater on the property was contaminated with volatile organic compounds, semi-volatile organic compounds and metals; however, the amount of contamination was below health-based levels. As a precaution, the department and Alcolac executed an Environmental Covenant as an additional assurance that unacceptable exposure to any residual contamination would not occur. The covenant was filed with the Pettis County Recorder of Deeds on March 20, 2008. The covenant restricts the property to non-residential use and prohibits drilling or using shallow groundwater for drinking water. The department determined the site did not pose any unacceptable risks to human health or the environment. On Sept. 18, 2013, following the opportunity for public review and comment, the department approved the proposed final remedy of no further corrective action with institutional controls. The department released the facility from regulation as an interim status hazardous waste treatment, storage and disposal facility subject to the corrective action requirements of the Missouri Hazardous Waste Management Law and regulations, effective Sept. 18, 2013. However, the activity and use limitations contained in the Environmental Covenant continue to apply.
The facility currently is vacant and there are no active manufacturing operations. Alcolac sold 171 acres of the facility property that were not occupied by the former plant manufacturing operations to JBK Farms LLC, who uses it for crop fields. Alcolac retained ownership of the remaining 56 acres, which includes the former manufacturing area.
