CONTRACTORS TO BID ON MEW SITE CLEANUP

Donning orange and yellow boots as a precaution, about 30 contractors considering a cleanup of the Missouri Electric Works site inspected the property Wednesday morning.

The pre-bid inspection was another step in the federal Environmental Protection Agency's lengthy effort to clean up the PCB-contaminated site at 824 S. Kingshighway.

Actual cleanup work, involving excavation and incineration of the contaminated soil at the 6.4-acre site, could begin next summer and take a year to complete, EPA officials said. The project will also involve studies as to the extent of contamination of the ground water and removal of old electrical transformers stored on the property.

EPA investigations of the site and adjoining properties between 1984 and 1987 uncovered polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in concentrations of 21,000 parts per million in the soil. Later tests showed ground water in the vicinity of the MEW site had traces of other organic contaminants, including benzene.

Pauletta France-Isetts, the EPA's project manager for the MEW site, said the cleanup is expected to cost an estimated $17 million.

France-Isetts was at the site Wednesday, along with Warren Mueller, Union Electric Co.'s emergency response coordinator, and Jim Kavanaugh of the Missouri Department of Natural Resources.

The cost of cleanup is being borne by potential responsible parties (PRPs). The PRPs are companies, cities and others that took electrical transformers to the business for disposal, repair or storage.

During an inspection in October 1984, the Missouri Department of Natural Resources discovered that some of the 102, 55-gallon drums of transformer oil on the site were leaking. Tests showed the oil contained PCBs, which the EPA has described as suspected cancer-causing chemicals.

The site was added to the EPA's National Priority List of Superfund Sites in 1989.

There are 324 PRPs that have been identified in connection with the MEW site.

A consortium of about 170 of those PRPs, led by Union Electric, recently signed a consent decree with the government in which they agreed to help pay for the cleanup of the contaminated soil as well as conduct further ground water studies.

France-Isetts said the consent decree was filed June 29 in the Eastern District of the U.S. District Court.

She said the decree cannot be approved by the court until after a 30-day public comment period.

She estimated it would be September or October before the document will be approved in federal court.

The EPA is also seeking to reach a settlement with the family of Richard H. Giles, the owner and president of Missouri Electric Works who died March 21.

"We're still negotiating with the estate," said France-Isetts. She said Missouri Electric Works has basically closed its doors since the death of Giles.

"It is my understanding they are going to liquidate the assets," she said.

The motor and transformer repair and sales business had operated at the site since 1953.

Both France-Isetts and Mueller said the construction management contractor will oversee the cleanup project for the PRPs, in association with the EPA.

"We're going to try to have the CMC (construction management contractor) picked in the next two to three months," said Mueller.

He explained that the contractor would serve as "the eyes and ears" for the PRP group in an effort to see that the cleanup work is done correctly.

The actual cleanup work could involve a separate contractor, he said, and would include erection and testing of the soil incinerator.