OWNER OF KEM-PEST OBJECTS TO EPA PLAN TO DEMOLISH BUILDING

EPA OFFICIALS DISCUSS KEM-PEST SITE: Steve Kovac, right, of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, spoke at a hearing Thursday concerning the Kem-Pest site. Also at the hearing were Julie Warren, left, of the Missouri Department of Natural Resources and Connie Thigpen, EPA remedial project manager.

The owner of the site of the former Kem-Pest Laboratories in Cape Girardeau Thursday objected to the second phase of the Environmental Protection Agency's plan for cleanup of the Superfund site.

The EPA added the Kem-Pest site to its Superfund list in 1987, and earlier this year completed the first phase of the cleanup. That phase included the excavation of pesticide-laced soils from the site.

The agency plans in its second phase, which is slated to begin in January, to demolish and remove the building where pesticides were manufactured.

But Elizabeth Knote, whose family owns the site, said Thursday at a public hearing on the cleanup plan, that the building could more easily be decontaminated.

In 1989, the EPA suggested decontamination, but has since recommended the plan be amended and the building demolished.

"EPA's decision was correct then, and it remains the correct decision today," Knote said. "However EPA has changed its mind.

"Instead of cleaning up the building, which would involve simply removing and disposing of the resulting pesticide dust in the building, EPA wants to demolish the building and haul all of the rubble away to be disposed of in a landfill as hazardous waste."

Knote called the plan "extreme" and urged the EPA to use common sense.

"Practical people do not tear down a building simply because the floor is dirty," she said. "Instead, they clean the floor."

She said demolition of the building would result in more than 750 tons of "hazardous waste" that would be placed in a landfill, while cleaning the building would generate much less waste, which could be taken to an incinerator and destroyed.

Knote also said demolition of the building would prevent potential commercial uses for the building.

"Demolishing the building would prevent any economic use of the structure, and would remove the structure from the tax rolls, all to the detriment of the community," she added.

But Connie Thigpen, the EPA's remedial project manager for the Kem-Pest site, said demolition of the building will be less expensive than decontamination.

She said demolition will cost an estimated $600,000 to $800,000, while decontamination is projected to cost about $1.25 million.

Thigpen said that since the EPA recommended decontamination of the building in 1989, the agency has had more experience with the process at other sites.

"With a cinder block building like the Kem-Pest building, the porosity of the blocks makes it very difficult to clean," she said. "It serves as a sponge for the contaminants and they tend to continue to resurface.

"Plus, when you constantly sand blast and grit the building, you threaten its integrity."

Julie Warren, the project manager of the Kem-Pest site for the Missouri Department of Natural Resources, said the DNR supports the EPA's plan to demolish the building.

She said the action will permanently remove waste materials from the site and eliminate future contaminations.

Although the EPA has recommended demolition of the building, its final decision won't be made until a public comment period is completed Nov. 23.

Kem-Pest Laboratories operated from 1965-1977 at a site about three miles north of Cape Girardeau, between Highway 177 and the Mississippi River.

The company produced pesticides, a process that generated chemical wastes that were disposed of in a lagoon that was back-filled with clay in 1981.

Field sampling by the EPA identified contamination, primarily pesticides, in soil and ground water at the site and in the plant building.

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.

The EPA's proposal for cleanup of the site is available for public review in the Kem-Pest administrative record file at the Cape Girardeau Public Library, 711 N. Clark.

The document contains the EPA's final decision for cleanup of the site and includes responses to comments received from the public. For additional information about the Kem-Pest site, persons can contact Hattie Thomas, the EPA's community relations coordinator, at (913) 551-7003.