KEM-PEST SITE: FIRST PHASE OF $2 MILLION CLEANUP IS NOW COMPLETE

The Environmental Protection Agency has completed the first phase of a $2 million project to clean up the Kem-Pest Superfund site near Cape Girardeau.

Connie Thigpen, the EPA's project manager for the Kem-Pest site, said plans for the second phase of the cleanup which will include an on-going plan to monitor ground water and to determine how best to remove contaminants from the Kem-Pest Laboratories building should be completed soon.

"We finished the first phase of the project in June, and we propose to finish the design phase by mid-October for the second phase of the project," Thigpen said. "We're looking at coming before the public Nov. 12 to give a plan on what we propose for the site.

"If all goes well we're looking at letting contracts at the end of December or the first of January to start work on that part of the project in February."

Kem-Pest Laboratories, situated about three miles north of Cape Girardeau between Highway 177 and the Mississippi River, produced pesticides from about 1964 to 1977. The process generated chemical wastes that were disposed of in a lagoon that was back-filled with clay in 1981.

In the first phase of the cleanup, the Army Corps of Engineers acting as the "contractor" for the project excavated soil from the lagoon site to a depth of 10 feet. Contaminated surface soil around the building also was removed.

Thigpen said that about 5,000 cubic yards of soil were removed from the site.

"The first phase was looking at contamination in soils and involved the excavation of lagoon soils and soils around the site," she said.

Thigpen said the first phase, which initially was projected to be finished in the spring, took longer than expected primarily because of wet weather.

"Besides the normal delays you can have in any project like this, we had an exorbitant amount of rain," she said. "The weather was a big factor in not getting done as soon as we would have liked."

Earlier this year, EPA officials said monitoring wells installed around the Kem-Pest site showed that there was some on-site ground water contamination, but that the surrounding area essentially was free from contaminants.

Missouri has no approved hazardous wastes facilities to dispose of the excavated soil, so materials removed from the site were taken to a facility in Peoria, Ill.

The $2 million cleanup effort will be funded mostly through the federal Superfund. The Missouri Department of Natural Resources is responsible for paying 10 percent in matching funds.

Also, $470,000 was paid toward the cleanup by the family of Charles, Ruth and Elizabeth Knote identified as the potentially responsible party (PRP) that caused the pollution. Charles Knote operated the laboratory at the site, which was shut down several years ago.

The Kem-Pest site is about 1,000 feet north of the Mississippi River. Surface runoff water from the site and the on-site lagoon flows through a drainage channel leading into a culvert, from which the water reaches the river.

When the laboratory was operating, waste water from Kem-Pest apparently was discharged in the lagoon, and over time, pesticides and sludge built up and seeped into the ground water.

The federal government has claimed that before cleanup began, direct contact with contaminated soils at the site posed a threat to trespassers and future residential and industrial uses. A number of houses are within 1,000 feet of the site.