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EPA proposes St. Louis, Mich., site for Superfund List

Release Date: 09/23/2009
Contact Information: Mick Hans, 312-353-5050, hans.mick@epa.gov (MDEQ) Bob McCann, 517-373-7917

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
No. 09-OPA177

(CHICAGO - Sept. 23, 2009) U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has proposed adding the Gratiot County Golf Course site in St. Louis, Mich., to the Superfund National Priorities List of hazardous waste sites. Sites on the list are eligible for additional study and resources under EPA's Superfund program. A 60-day public comment period about the proposed listing begins today.

The proposed Superfund site lies east of the Hidden Oaks Golf Course on Monroe Road. From 1956 to 1970, the nearby Velsicol Chemical plant disposed of liquid industrial waste by open pit burning in this area. The disposal area was proposed to the NPL in 1982 and at that time Velsicol excavated 68,000 cubic yards of contaminated soil. As a result, the proposed NPL listing was cancelled. In 2006, additional soil and ground water contamination was found and EPA and Michigan Department of Environmental Quality decided to propose the site as a new listing.

If added to the NPL, the site will be eligible for further analysis and development of cleanup options by EPA in partnership with MDEQ. Private residential or municipal drinking water wells are not believed to be affected. Addressing the site under Superfund can remove potential future risks.

In EPA Region 5, Chemetco, a closed steel plant site in Hartford, Ill., was also proposed for the NPL today. Three previously proposed Region 5 sites were formally added to the NPL: the Lane Street Ground Water Contamination in Elkhart, Ind., the Little Scioto River in Marion, Ohio, and Amcast Industrial Corp. in Cedarburg, Wis. Nationally, 11 new sites were added to the NPL and 10 sites were proposed for addition to the list. Under the NPL process, sites are first proposed and public comments considered before a determination is made to formally add a site to the list.

To date, there have been 1,607 sites on the NPL. Of these sites, 336 have been deleted resulting in 1,271 sites currently on the NPL (including the 11 new final sites added in today's rulemaking). With the proposal of the 10 new sites, there are 66 proposed sites awaiting final agency action: 61 in the general Superfund section and five in the federal facilities section. There are a total of 1,337 final and proposed sites.

Links to the Federal Register notice, information on submitting comments on the proposed sites, background on the NPL process and summaries of the sites newly added or proposed are at http://epa.gov/superfund/sites/npl/current.htm.