EPA CONTINUES NEGOTIATIONS FOR CLEANUP SETTLEMENT AT MEW

Negotiations are continuing into a settlement of an Environmental Protection Agency cleanup of the Missouri Electric Works Inc. site in Cape Girardeau.

The site at 824 S. Kingshighway was added to the EPA's National Priority List of Superfund Sites in 1989. Testing has been conducted at the site and additional tests are on schedule.

Missouri Electric Works, a motor and transformer repair and sales business, has operated at the 6.4-acre site since 1953.

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 polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), a compound believed by some to be a cancer-causing agent.

"Settlement negotiations have been under way for several months," said Sarah Sullivan, an EPA attorney. "I was in Cape Girardeau recently to meet with attorneys of the Richard H. Giles family. We hope to reach a settlement in the situation."

Also involved in negotiations is a consortium of potential responsible parties, which are companies that have done business with Missouri Electric Works.

Sullivan, who works out of the Kansas City, Kan., EPA office, said negotiations were put on hold in March due to the death of Giles, founder and president of the company.

"We had talked with Giles before his death," said Sullivan.

Giles, who died March 21, 1992, moved to Cape Girardeau in 1947, founding MEW the same year.

EPA investigations of the site and adjoining properties between 1984 and 1987 uncovered PCB 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.

In August 1992, the EPA announced that the total cleanup cost could run as high as $10 million.

Additional testing must be undertaken at MEW following last summer's tests.

"Investigations last summer raised some additional questions concerning ground water," said Paulette France-Isetts, the EPA's project manager for the MEW site. "A deep-well test didn't give us all the information we needed; we need to look into the matter more."

France-Isetts, also of the Kansas office, did not mention a specific time for new testing.

"Our steering committee has agreed to the additional investigations," said France-Isetts. "These will be done at a later date."

Core samples of limestone rock and a deep well were drilled at the site last summer. The monitoring well was drilled to a depth of more than 200 feet.

"This was in regards to a feasibility study to formulate a plan to remove polychlorinated biphenyls and other organic contaminants found in the soil and ground water on and adjoining the MEW site," said France-Isetts.