KEM-PEST CLEANUP COULD BE COMPLETED IN SEPTEMBER

The removal of contaminants from the Kem-Pest Superfund site north of Cape Girardeau could be finished by the end of September, the EPA's project site administrator said Monday.

Steven L. Sanders said crews have been removing the old formulation building, basement and soil from the surrounding area.

Elizabeth Knote, whose family owns the property, raised concerns last week after she said she found contaminants under the basement area.

The site housed Cape-Kil, a pesticide formulation company, from 1965 to 1977. Pesticides and other wastes were disposed of in an on-site lagoon, which has since been removed. The EPA began cleanup of the site in 1992.

The site is located about 3 miles north of Cape Girardeau between Highway 177 and the Mississippi River.

Knote said she was told the matter, which contained heptachlor expoxide, was too low in contaminants for action under current guidelines but would have met 1992 guidelines.

She said the samples she took showed 18 parts per million of heptachlor epoxide.

Sanders said EPA guidelines drawn up during the first phase of the project require levels of at least 31 parts per million for soil more than 2 feet below the surface.

He said crews did find soil containing some pesticides in the basement area, but added those samples "were at least 8 feet down, if not more than that. There really isn't any exposure route for people to be worried about except groundwater."

The EPA will continue monitoring groundwater on the site for a number of years, he said.

The areas in which the pesticides were found were backfilled with clean material.

Sanders also said site crews have not been presented with information about the material Knote found or the chemical analysis data, but said the depth at which they were found greatly reduced the risk of any exposure.

"At 15 feet of depth, there's hardly any exposure that could occur," he said.

Crews now have to complete the removal of any remaining contaminated soils and backfilling the areas from which the soils were removed.

"We could be finished in the next month," Sanders said.

Once the backfilling is complete, he said, the only remaining part of the cleanup will be the groundwater monitoring.

Knote and county officials were concerned because they said they were promised an environmentally clean site after the cleanup.

The backfill will achieve that, Sanders said.