News Releases from Region 07
Free EPA Job Training Provides Skills, Job Opportunities for 24 Fredericktown, Mo., Residents
Environmental News
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
(Lenexa, Kan., March 6, 2018) - On Monday in Fredericktown, Missouri, 24 residents from the area graduated from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Superfund Job Training Initiative (SuperJTI) program. Graduates are able to fill available jobs with environmental contractors, including the team cleaning up lead contamination at the Madison County Mines Superfund Site in Fredericktown.
“Community partners were a significant factor in the success of the training held from January through February of this year,” said Mary Peterson, director of the EPA Region 7 Superfund Division. “We really appreciate the hard work and enthusiasm of the Madison County Health Department and their board of trustees, the Madison County Commission, the Black River Electric Cooperative, and many others, who helped conduct outreach and recruitment, assisted with candidate screening, and provided oversight and assistance to trainees during the program.”
SuperJTI is a national environmental remediation job readiness program that provides free training and employment opportunities for citizens living in communities affected by Superfund sites. SuperJTI provides unemployed and underemployed individuals with the technical skills and specialized training needed to work on a broad range of projects in environmental remediation and construction, as well as the cleanup of a Superfund site.
Each Madison County Mines SuperJTI graduate earned certificates in:
- Hazardous Waste Operations and Emergency Response (40-hr HAZWOPER)
- 10-hour Occupational Safety and Health Administration Construction Outreach
- CPR/First Aid
- Job Readiness Skills
EPA Region 7 is remediating lead-contaminated soil in residential yards within the Madison County Mines Superfund Site. EPA has been working in the local community to clean up lead-contaminated sites since 1999, after initially detecting elevated heavy-metal levels (lead) in mine waste, soil, groundwater, and sediment.
For information on Superfund JTI, visit: www.epa.gov/superfund/superfund-job-training-initiative.
For more information about the Madison County Mines Superfund Site, lead contamination and testing, visit: www.epa.gov/superfund/madisoncountymines and www.epa.gov/lead/learn-about-lead.
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