The removal action, which will cost about $7m, will focus on a 1,240-acre portion of St Joe State Park, including off-road vehicle riding areas, former lead milling location and an adjacent section of the Shaw Branch floodplain in St Francois County.
As per the order filed by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Doe Run and MDNR have 60 days to submit a draft work plan, outlining intended steps to complete the removal action.
The site is known to EPA as the Federal Tailings Pile Superfund Site, a sub-site of Big River Mine Tailings Superfund Site, which is on the Agency’s National Priorities List for cleanup of hazardous lead.
Soils at the park are extensively contaminated with toxic lead and lead compounds from mining wastes that accumulated over several decades, and soil samples collected during recent inspections of the site have been found to contain up to 20,000 parts per million of lead.
Additionally, lead has been found at elevated levels in sediment, surface water and aquatic life adjacent to the site in the Shaw Branch of Flat River, a tributary of Big River.
The removal action will take approximately 18 months to complete.
EPA regional administrator Karl Brooks said the remedial work in the park and the adjacent Shaw Branch floodplain will also significantly reduce the amount of harmful lead released into the environment by the movement of wind and water.
The park portion of the site is owned by the State of Missouri, which received it as part of an 8,238-acre gift from the St Joe Minerals Corp in 1976.
